Golden Eyes
by Sailoramber
Summary: when he resurected Rin, Sesshomaru looked death in the eye... and defeated her. with a madwoman and a mute child determined to follow him to the ends of time, he is confronted with something he never thought to face... his soul.
1. mysterious woman who calls herself death

Golden Eyes

This story is told mostly by Sesshomaru and may have many variations from the original Inuyasha series. (Ummm, call it a might have been.)

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and co. do not belong to me

Scroll one: The mysterious woman who calls herself death; Nirakumi 

"I think I shall perform another test."

As I spoke these words I drew tenseiga, the worthless sword that that my father left me. Powerful it may be, as Totosai said, and capable of saving hundreds in one sweep, but still worthless. The tenseiga flashed in the moonlight, and I harnessed its power to perform the test. With the tenseiga in my grip, reality seemed to fade out of my perception; the only thing that had substance was the body that lay before me. I began to see pathetic looking beings crawling over the small body of the human girl, a body smelling of blood, wolves and death.

As I stood there I realized that the girls' soul had not yet left the bodies vicinity, and was hovering nearby. I also realized that the creatures hovering over the body where there to collect the soul.

So, I could perceive things through the tenseiga. It was a pensive thought. In fact nothing seemed to exist inside time anymore

The dim glow of the suns last rays were both eternal and non-existent, though I knew it had been just under the horizon as I approached the body. I began to wonder why I was going to the trouble to save such a pitiful being. An image flashed across my mind, a vision of the girls smiling face after I said she didn't have to answer my question, smiling at _me,_ of all things. She had smiled, even though she had been beaten severely and was obviously still in pain. I had absolutely no reason to care; yet still, the image of that smile was there.

Still not sure why I was doing this, I adjusted my grip on tenseiga and raised my arm, my one remaining arm thanks to my younger sibling. With a slash so quick the sword was a blur in my hand; I brought the sword down and created an incision of blinding light and energy along the girls' body. The messengers of death cried out in sickly voices as they sprang away from the body, disintegrating into nothingness.

I knelt and supported her body, studying her resurrection; the light seemed to be fusing her soul back into her body while healing the wounds that had killed her, wounds that had been inflicted by wolves. I was dimly aware of Jaken exclaiming in surprise at what I was doing, but tuned him out, as the light gave a final flash and closed the rift tenseiga had created, I focused on the now live girl supported by my arm. She opened her eyes and looked up at me incomprehensively; plainly not aware that ten seconds ago she had been dead. She stepped back, as I got to my feet she continued gazing at me, mute as ever.

As I turned to head deeper into the woods, I sheathed the tenseiga with a sharp click, the test was completed and the girl was capable of surviving on her own. After all, from the looks of her she had done so most of her life. All I could hear of her was slight breathing for a moment, then the soft pat pat of her bare feet on the ground. It was unsurprising that she was following me, but I _had_ hoped it would turn out other wise.

Jaken continued to exclaim over the unlikely-ness of what I had just done, apparently unaware that I was walking away. He was old, and had been my servant for a very long time, so one would think he would be adjusted to my mannerisms. As soon as the thought came into my head, I wondered if I actually had any mannerisms, or if my usual habits even applied in this situation. As a rule, I do not have a set pattern of behavior, aside from the hobby I have made of trying to kill Inuyasha, but I myself could not explain my actions on this evening. Jaken, having run out of things to say about my unusual behavior finally caught on that I was walking away. He began running after me, squawking;

"Wait for me lord Sesshomaru!" Before shutting up.

As I walked I reflected upon what had just transpired, more to the point, I thought about the reasons and consequences of my actions. In saving the life of a human, I had done something completely unexpected in relation to who I am, and what I was. And now I had a human child trailing after me, why I was letting her was another mystery to me. My mind then jumped to the only possible external influence that could cause me to act this way, the tenseiga and its humanitarian powers. Why had my father left me this sword? The darkness of the woods deepened, and I began to rely on smell and sound to guide me more than my sight.

Why did you make me save a human, tenseiga? The darkness swallowed me completely. I heard somebody sigh as if I had spoken out loud, but it came from neither Jaken nor the small human, it came instead from somewhere to my right, a womans' clear high voice shattered the silence of the night

"You know your being an idiot right? You really shouldn't blame inanimate objects for your feelings that you don't understand, it's not healthy." Puzzled, I turned to the direction the voice was coming from, why hadn't I smelled her or heard her breathing? There was a flare of light and a woman appeared, holding a flame in her hand.

"Because I didn't want you to of course." She said.

I jumped, not physically but mentally; the bitch was reading my mind!

"Now that's not very nice is it? Of course I'm reading your mind." I began to feel annoyed, who the hell does she think she is?

"I think I'm death, well a minor incarnation of the underworld at least. You know, you really could start insulting me out-loud at the very least, telepathy gives me a head-ache." I gave up trying to puzzle out if she was telling the truth, or what death would want with me if she was, and instead took her up on her suggestion of talking out-loud;

"Do you have ay idea who you're talking to?"

"Of course I do, you're Sesshomaru lord of the west and a bunch of other titles I could really care less about. You don't think I go around the woods calling random people stupid do you?"

Jaken decides to pipe up "why you insolent little…" he does not finish his sentence however, as at the same time I kick him for being an annoying little toad, she says;

"You stay out of this."

"Ok." He slinks back behind me with a meek face and a lump on his head, he then remains quiet. Meanwhile the woman was really starting to get on my nerves and I have begun to consider whether or not it might be worth my time to kill her.

"You must be either very brave or very stupid to insult me, bitch."

"I have a name you know, it's Nirakumi."

"So that's what deaths name is." I scoffed. She shook her head

"I've said it once and I'll say it again, you really are an idiot."

I decided I'd had enough insults from her, and she didn't even struggle as I flashed behind her and ripped her back open with my talons, ripping through the tough tissues of her heart, the poison on my talons causing her blood to smell rancid. The flame she was holding went out as she fell limp to the ground, blood soaking through her fine black kimono, causing the fabric to glisten darkly in the moonlight. I exhaled through my nose to get the smell out.

Only when I saw her coal black eyes as she lay there on the ground did I pay attention to what she looked like, nothing about that gaze seemed to say she was dead, and it was like staring into an abyss, a glimpse into some private hell where you're dreaming about a fall that never ends, only it's not a dream, they truly were the eyes of death living. An involuntary shudder at those eyes made me realize I was being over imaginative, I began to study the rest of her face and, over imaginative or not, I avoided looking into those eyes again.

Her face was long and delicate, and framed by strait clipped side-locks of waist length red hair, the back of her head done in elaborate loops on top then fanning out from where she lay. With curved pale lips, high cheekbones, a prominent nose, and her eyebrows arching finely over those coal black eyes, she had an ethereal beauty. Her skin was parchment white and contrasted her black silk kimono and silver patterned red obi, the intricate silver flames done on one of the sleeves as well.

Her look was not that of surprise, but of alert intelligence, and this was eerier than her eyes. I had sensed her strength; she was almost as strong as I was, so if my sudden movement had not surprised her, why had she not fought back? Killing was never something I had given much thought to, just another way to get what I wanted, and it's not like I've ever gone out of my way just to kill someone (except Inuyasha). But looking at the expression on her face, I began to think I shouldn't have killed her.

I turned from my study of Nirakumi, feeling incredulous; was I actually feeling _sympathy_ for the annoying creature? First I saved that human and now I was feeling remorse, I really was going soft. Questions about the self proclaimed death floated across my thoughts as I stared into the darkness. Why, if she was truly death, did she die at all? And for that matter, who takes death to the afterlife? I smiled grimly at the last one.

I turned to signal Jaken that I was ready to leave and noticed the girl I had saved had fallen asleep under a nearby tree. Thinking I might be able to go without her following me, I turned back towards the darkness, yet something stopped me from continuing. I sensed strength of will in the girl, something that is rare in humans so young, rare in humans in general.

Why _had_ she been saved? Perhaps the tenseiga compelled me to, but something Nirakumi had said came to mind, in fact the first thing she had said "…_you really shouldn't blame inanimate objects for your own feelings…"_ my own feelings? Definitely an amusing thought, but still there was that strength.

I walked over to her and, despite myself, picked her up and carried her, letting her sleep in my arm as I made my way through the forest to my mount, leaving the body of the enigmatic Nirakumi behind me.

For several days after, I proceeded to ignore the girl completely, having delegated her care to Jaken. However, it soon became clear that she was not going to let me ignore her. On the first day she found a bamboo stick, and after close examination of the bamboo she proceeded to chase Jaken around the glade we had stopped at, hitting him solidly in the middle of the head with unfailing accuracy whenever he lagged behind. Finally, out of preservation of peace of mind, I put a stop to it. On the second day she kept a relatively low profile, but had somehow managed to reacquire the bamboo I had taken from her, so that whenever Jaken came near her she poked him with the stick.

The third evening after I found her, I was lounging against a tree, using my fur cloak to make my seat more comfortable, reading a scroll of spells I had appropriated from a nearby temple. Something moved beside me, and when I looked up from the scroll, the child was sitting with her back against my leg, tilting her head back to stare up at me with her large questioning eyes. I looked down at her, trying to make her go away; the look I was giving her was one that had sent grown men fleeing for their lives, yet the thing just smiled at me, a very odd smile due to my perspective, and started clapping her weak little hands. I felt exasperation I didn't let show, I kept my face blank. I went back to reading, hoping she'd go away if I ignored her.

As I read I thought about my strategies, this recent battle marked the third occasion in which I had attempted to kill Inuyasha. The first and second times I had been after tetsusaiga, but after it became apparent to me that the sword had chosen my brother as its master, I went to Totosai so that he might forge me a blade to rival tetsusaiga. The old man had fled, seeking Inuyashas' protection. How pitiful!

I had failed three times now because I underestimated my brother; and all three times he's managed to take my arm off, it was obvious to me that my arm is my weakness. Of course, Inuyasha had cut off my real arm in our first battle over tetsusaiga; it now resided in our fathers' tomb, which was located in Inuyashas' right eye. If I could catch Inuyasha off guard, I could retrieve it; as long as I am alive it won't decay. However Inuyashas' strength had increased dramatically since our first encounter, it would be difficult to hold him against his will; it would be easy enough to kill him, but if he was not alive when I delved into his eye for fathers' tomb, the tomb would collapse. If I did decide to go after Inuyasha to get my arm back, the attack would have to be well planned. The tetsusaiga had been a tempting prize, but a useless one to pursue, so I might as well retrieve my arm. There was a movement at my side once again; the child had not gone away yet; in fact she had fallen asleep, slumped at my side. Annoying creature! I decided not to do anything about her, however; instead, I let her rest and went back to my musings.

That I could not touch tetsusaiga without a human arm frustrated me to no end; why had my father, a powerful demon lord, chosen to leave the sword that destroys to my stupid half-breed brother?

A familiar scent was on the wind but I could not recognize from where I remembered it, so I pushed it out of my mind and did not allow it to disturb my train of thought.

I couldn't even touch the tetsusaiga the first time I saw it, and then I had gotten careless and allowed Inuyasha to slice my arm off with it. I suppose it was sheer luck that he had discovered how to use it so quickly… or maybe not; that wench that hangs around with him does mean a lot to him, she's also a power to be reckoned with. Proof of this was that she had evaded death at my hands twice, had once managed to fight back, and she had been the one to draw the tetsusaiga. All in that pitiful little group seemed to hold some form of loyalty to her. She was the key, she was his strength and his weakness; threaten her and he starts to fight decently, but capture her… Suddenly everything fell into place in my head, and this time, I will not underestimate my brother. I allowed a faint smile to show on my face. I might even be able to get a decent arm out of the deal.

Something tickled my forehead.

"Whatcha reading?" said a voice belonging to a woman I thought silenced forever. I looked up in the direction of the voice, I narrowed my eyes; Nirakumi was hanging upside down from the tree branch above me, her hair is what was tickling my forehead, impossible! This time I really did jump at her appearance; I jumped up and back, the child still sleeping on the ground. I acted instinctively; I lashed out with my energy whip and effectively cut the tree down. There was a groan and a rustling sound as the tree crashed to the ground, falling away from me. The impact sent up clouds of dust and leaves, reducing visibility, but I heard a snap that I knew was not a tree branch and I smelled blood.

But the fact was; I shouldn't smell Nirakumis' blood, I had left her dead in the forest three days ago, and it was impossible that she was here and, a few moments ago, alive. _She was dead!_ And now apparently, she was dead again. Was this an illusion? No it couldn't be, she had a smell, and I could smell her death. I could also detect a faint smell of the damp forest floor clinging to her; which would logically suggest that this was the same person.

Another smell tickled my nostril, the smell of the slowed metabolism of sleep; _the child had slept through a tree falling down next to her?_ I was becoming further and further intrigued about that small being, but I realized that I was also feeling a sense of relief that she was unharmed. This bothered me; why was I growing so attached to a human? I pushed it out of my mind.

The dust was settling, and my vision was becoming sharper. That is to say I could now distinguish two lighter shapes against a big shape that was apparently the tree. The dust settled further, and I could see the girl sleeping on the ground right were she was when she fell asleep. I walked to the girl slowly, warily, keeping a close eye on the once again deceased Nirakumi. I paused and knelt by the small human, checking to see if the crash had disturbed her sleep whatsoever, I noticed without surprise that it had not.

Nirakumis' body was laying several feet away, stinking of blood. As I approached the body, I noticed that her neck was bent at an odd angle, but the smell of blood was not from the broken neck, it was from the large tree branch that was protruding from her abdomen. Various internal organs had been pushed out of the body, and pieces of flesh and guts dangled from the splintered end of the branch. The blood was beginning to pool around her corpse.

The scene was rather messy, I admitted to myself, not as messy as the carnage that usually happened when armies of mortals tried to stand in my way, but still rather messy.

How the hell had she gotten here? But I knew the answer; she had told me herself, she was a deity of death. She would not need a relic like the tenseiga to resurrect herself, I had not believed her words, and I was still skeptical, for how often does one meet a goddess? I made my decision; if she turned up alive again, I would let her live. If not, well, it would be one less annoyance.

Before I left, I removed the branch that had impaled her and laid her body out flat on the ground. I would give her some acknowledgement, even if she were apparently dead. I was not really sure why, but I suppose dieing twice was enough reason to acknowledge any body, even if they are annoying when alive.

I heard Jaken come bounding up behind me; he may be annoying, but at least he was respectful. I turned to him;

"It appears that our belated acquaintance Nirakumi decided to drop in unexpected. Do not disturb her body."

"Of course, lord Sesshomaru, but how did she get here?" I did not answer; I decided it was time to leave

"Wake the girl, we are leaving."

"Yes lord Sesshomaru!"

I was a swirling essence, a mere form of thought, and I was confused. I knew that the reason I was confused was that most of what I was resided in the broken body below me, and I knew I had to fix that body in order to end my confusion, because the only scrap of what I was I knew, was that my name is Nirakumi.

_Fix the body._

That was my objective, and then I would be whole again. I drew on a power that was me and outside of me, a power that was not easily explainable, something that shone with a crystalline radiance. This power was so pure and gentle, such a benign magic, that it was like happiness was a tangible ocean. It was like a mother, it would care for me and love me and make everything right. Drawing on that power I, whatever I was, began to mend the body. I plunged into the body on a molecular level, I made things right, I made every thing right, just like that power. I eliminated infection, I repaired the damaged cells, I purified and made new blood. But I was outside the body as well, I re-grew the tattered skin, I repaired the punctured and ripped organs, I mended bones, and I even fixed and cleansed the garments that the body wore. I made it so it was perfect and whole again.

But wait! No, it wasn't whole yet, there was something missing, something terribly important. The body wasn't alive, it was just a body, and it had no spark of life. I had to make the body live! If I didn't I would be confused and lost forever!

I went into the body, it was my only option; I fused myself into it to give it access to that benign, crystalline power that infused me, to make the body live and to end my confusion. I tapped that beautiful power and gave it to the body, _my _body.

I opened my eyes, feeling rather disconnected; dieing does that to a person, even if that person happens to be me. I was also exhausted, this was the second time this week, that I'd had to use my soul like a, like a… modern welding torch for lack of a better term. I sat up and dusted myself off. Up until a month ago, I had been completely non-corporeal, and it was damn easier than having a body, because without a body I was all places and all times at once. Unfortunately, for the experiment I was conducting, a physical form was necessary.

I grimaced at the memory of lost feeling I had before resurrecting myself; another unfortunate side effect of the experiment was the need to restrict how much of what I was left the body, if my entire self left at time of death, I would probably lose steam and stop trying to perform the experiment due to the discomfort of having a body. But hey, whoever said being the goddess of death was easy?

I got up and stretched the kinks out of my muscles.

I had many names and many aspects, but Nirakumi is what I had chosen to name this body, I had not a clue what the name meant, but I thought it sounded rather nice. I knew that unless my experiment succeeded, nobody would remember my newest name or aspect if you will, and even if I did succeed in accomplishing my goal, it would be an aspect known by very few mortals. In other words, what I call myself does not matter, what matters is that I conduct the experiment.

I inhaled deeply, taking in the fragrance of the sap on the tree nearby, and the smell of the clean air in general. I looked up at the sky, letting the sun finish reviving me. That was one of the few good things about having a body; I could feel the warmth of the sun.

I remembered that when I perceived things in my non-corporeal state the sun had a presence and an awesome amount of energy, and plants and trees existed, but until I created a body for myself I had never felt the suns warmth, or smelled the plants and trees. But it also worked the other way as well; I felt unpleasantly cold at night, and decay and filth stank all the worse because I knew there were better smells.

Instead of lying on the ground again, I suspended myself in midair. I leaned back, crossed my legs and put my hands behind my head, completely at ease.

I had chosen to make my body demonic in nature, as I wasn't about to put up with a body that had the limited strength of a mortal. So I had all the faculties I needed to function reasonably well; excellent eyesight, keen hearing, good sense of smell, and reasonable speed. The only thing I had chosen to tone down was touch, because, while the sun might be nice, pain was not something I wanted to feel any more than necessary. Of course when I say toned down, that is to say human level.

I began to float in the direction I knew Sesshomaru had gone, finding his trail was not a problem, it was catching up that was the trouble. Every time he killed me, I had to resurrect myself, and that took time, time in which he travels further and further away from me. Both times he killed me I had been expecting it, I would have killed me too. But it was what had had to be said, it was part of my experiment. But the fact that it is necessary still doesn't change the fact that I hate dieing, or the fact that time was infernally bothersome.

I continued to float along after his trail, switching in mid-air from the reclining position I had taken to more aerodynamic posture with my arms outspread. The wind caressing my face felt cool and refreshing after being dead for five hours. _Yep,_ I thought as I flew along Sesshomarus' trail, having a body definitely had its ups and downs.

Upon our arrival at my palace, I saw to it that my servants where aware that Nirakumi might be expected, and that I was to be notified immediately if she chanced to turn up. Of course I did not tell them her exact name or how she would be arriving. In all probability she would arrive wherever I was in the palace, without the servants being any the wiser; Stealth seemed to be her specialty.

I walked through my palace, heading for the inner rooms, when I felt a tug at my hair. I looked back and down, preparing to kill whatever it was that had pulled my hair, but stopped my self when I saw that the girl had several strands of my long white hair clutched in her fist. There was absolutely no sense in killing her; it would have been a waist of energy to use the tenseiga to bring her back only to end up killing her again. She gave me a tremulous look; the kind of look that the young of any mortal species seems so good at.

"Jaken."

"Yes lord Sesshomaru?"

"See to it that the child is fed and bathed properly."

"Of course." He did not ask where he was going to find human food in a demon palace, but he would find something. Jaken was resourceful and respectful, even if he was sometimes annoying. Jaken is my servant after all.

Jaken departed with the girl in tow, she was starting to fuss as he led her away, and began to tug at his grip on her wrist. As I watched them round a corner and walk out of my line of site, a palace servant approached me. I thought perhaps he might have news of Nirakumi, but as it turned out, he was just there to give me a report on how the palace had faired in my absence.

After hearing the report of affairs, I retired to my personal chambers to read. I had read so much during my lifetime that it was becoming hard to find new scrolls, but there was always some interesting scroll documenting a forgotten artifact or some unnamed spell, possibly even a detailed account of a recent battle, ready for me in my personal library.

First removing the armor that I always wear abroad, I looked around my rooms. A fire was already crackling in the hearth, located on the northern wall; it was modeled after those I had seen in Europe. It provided warmth and extra light in addition to the enchanted globes that hung from the ceiling. Two large bookshelves where located one on either side of the fireplace which was set into the only solid wall in the palace. A large window on the western wall, looking out into the courtyard provided ventilation, and a small table was located at the center of the room, along with mats to kneel on. Wall hangings depicting the exploits of various demons hung at even intervals along the rice paper walls, and directly across from the fireplace, were sliding doors that led to my futon.

A noise behind me caused me to turn and face the small human, who, even though I had told Jaken to arrange for her care, had managed to slip away from the little green man, and had been following me as I made my way to my chambers. The girl did not say anything, she never did, but she put her hands in the air and jumped as if to say surprise. I did not allow the amusement I felt to show on my face, she was truly a comic creature, and she continued to surprise me with her actions, even if I was not particularly surprised at her appearance.

Instead of reacting to her antics I turned and retrieved a scroll from the small library by the hearth, and a heavily brocaded cushion from the pile in the next room.

Throwing the cushion unceremoniously in the corner, I sat down on it, propping my back against the wall. Before I got the scroll open however, the girl came and sat in my lap! I looked at her coldly, wondering why I put up with this insufferable child. She began making faces at me. I was getting annoyed now.

"Child, you are trying my patience. Cease you behavior now." She stopped making faces at once, and did not move; in fact she was stock-still.

"What are you doing now?" I said in a quietly dangerous tone. There was a soft whoosh of wind and a womans voice by the window replied

"She is ceasing her behavior." I looked up at the voice; unsurprised that Nirakumi had arrived without notice. She looked exactly the same as the last two times I had seen her, even the fabric of her kimono looked untouched by her two violent deaths. Actually there was one difference, a wicked looking scythe hung diagonally across her back, gleaming with silver hues that might rival the moon, and probably did, when I thought about it. Placing the scroll beside me, I acknowledged her.

"I was wondering when you were going to arrive."

"Yeah well, resurrecting ones self takes a bit of time. I trust you're not going to kill me again? I really am getting tired of that."

"No, I want some questions answered."

"How nice." She replied mockingly. Ignoring her tone, I continued;

"What are you after, Nirakumi? I am rarely surprised by anything, yet you have managed to do so twice."

"Oh, so you're not surprised to see me tonight?"

"I was skeptical, but no, I was expecting something like this to happen after you appeared at the tree." She raised an eyebrow.

"Am I that predictable? I'll have to start being more random."

"Is that a threat?" I asked.

Of course even if it was a threat, there was very little I could do about it. Killing her would not solve the problem, for the obvious reason that she would just come back.

She ignored my question and looked around the room, then seeming to spot the girl, who was still not moving. She crossed the room, not appearing to actually walk; more like a serpentine glide, and picked the girl up out of my lap. Nirakumi held the girl above her head with both arms, gazing up at her.

"Now this, this is a piece of work, no one would know she has been dead at all! That sword of yours is truly something."

"This sword," I said as I drew tenseiga,

"Is a useless relic of my father."

"Hah! If it's so useless, why did it choose to save you? You know that's the reason you survived Inuyashas' attack." I didn't ask how she knew about that; it had indeed managed to keep the wolfs fang from killing me, but even the tenseiga could not have helped me had Inuyasha actually been trying to kill me. I gazed into the fire, keeping my face impassive.

"Inuyasha is a weakling hanyou" I sheathed the tenseiga.

"Even when I have tried to kill him on several occasions, he could not bring himself to kill me, no matter how much he hates me." She shook her head with disbelief

"And that's a bad thing!"

"It is when he is trying to get stronger."

"You make it sound like you actually care whether or not he gets stronger, Sesshomaru." She said in an innocent tone.

"I despise Inuyasha. He and his mother brought dishonor to my fathers' name. If he gets stronger perhaps the dishonor will not be so deep."

"Sheesh, talking to you makes me glad I'm not a demon." I smiled faintly, just the barest curve.

"Unless I am very much mistaken, you are a demon." She looked startled, and then tilted her head thoughtfully.

"You do have a point there, I did choose the form of a demon" She brought her legs up and sat in mid air, still nodding thoughtfully, Nirakumi seated the girl on her knee, the girl grinned at Nirakumis' performance. I was surprised as well, but chose not to comment on her behavior, however I did want to know what she was up to. She fiddled with a strand of her red hair and gazed at the girl in her arms, as I opened my mouth to speak. But before I said anything, she started talking.

"Yes, yes I know, why have I been stalking you, right? You've already asked that. The reason is that I want you to allow me to tag along with you wherever you go, nothing more, nothing less." I was hard pressed to keep my face calm at that, why should I allow this annoying woman to follow me around! I stood up and gave her my best imperious glare. She put the girl down, set her feet squarely on the ground, and looked at me back. It was amazing how tall she could make herself look considering she was maybe 5 '4'.

"Don't give me that stiletto stare, Sesshomaru, you know it won't work on me. And before you refuse, know that I will follow you whether you like it or not, it will just be easier on you if you allow me to tag along with no questions asked." I considered her statement; I knew she was not lying, and she would follow me. She was following me already; and the enmity if a goddess was not something I particularly wanted.

"I suppose there could be worse things than being on speaking terms with death." I kept my face carefully impassive; she would get no more of an agreement from me. I turned to the eastern wall, the entrance to my rooms. There was a familiar scent drifting through the door for quite a while now.

"Jaken, come and tend to the girl as I instructed you to an hour ago." There was a thump outside, like the sound of somebody falling down due to surprise. Jaken had been listening at the door for the past five minutes. A few seconds later, a very flustered Jaken entered the room. Nirakumi gave a derisive snort as he pushed the girl out of the room, squawking numerous apologies that the girl had escaped him.

As the sliding door shut behind him, Nirakumi turned to me with an incredulous look;

"Is that what you're calling her, _the girl_? You really don't put much store in sentiment, do you? You know you could have given her a name and she would have answered to that the rest of her life, but you go around calling her the girl!"

"Sentiment is a weakness." I was feeling angry, who the hell was she to lecture me!

Despite my anger, I kept my face as emotionless as ever. She continued to berate me.

"Sentiment is not a weakness! When are you going to learn that being truly strong requires strength of heart as well as physical strength!"

The scythe glinted dangerously in the firelight as she gestured with her hands

"For your information the girls name is Rin! How thick headed can you be!" I knew killing her would do absolutely no good, but goddess or not, she was stepping over the line. I had no desire to continue trading insults with her.

In one fluid movement I was in front of her and bringing back my claws to cut her throat. But I was caught off guard when her scythe was in her hands and parrying my attack, I had not even seen her move. As she brought her scythe back and raised it in a warning gesture, I stepped back, lowering my hand.

"Heh, so you can fight." Oh she could fight, and she had much quicker responses than I anticipated. She looked at me with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

"I advise you not to underestimate me again; it could lead to… complications." She said the last word with emphasis

"Never forget that I am death, and am capable of much more than you are aware of." She paused to turn her head to the window, her red hair glinting with the fires light, making it appear as if she had liquid fire rippling smoothly over her shoulder. She turned back to me

"And you really must stop killing me Sesshomaru, It is very uncomfortable when I die." She slung the scythe back over her shoulder. The dangerous look gone as soon as it came, but it did reveal one thing to me; she was much stronger than I had first assumed. I could no longer take her lightly.

I decided it would be wise to change the subject back to the matter at hand:

"If you wish to follow me, you must not interfere with my actions. If you do interfere, I will find a way to kill you so you don't come back." She looked amused at the sudden change of subject.

"Ha! You're free to try, that is if I do interfere, which I have no intention of doing." She paused and looked at me straight in the eye, forcing me to either look into that unnerving black gaze, or to look away, which I could not allow myself to do. She smiled and continued.

"However, I do intend to offer advice, I do not expect you to take it, but neither do I expect you to discard it offhand. In other words; don't ignore me." As she looked around the room, I rested my chin on the back of my hand in a casual action. I was getting bored with this conversation; it was becoming trivial.

"If you truly wish to follow me and make a general nuisance of yourself, we depart in the morning."

"Why not tonight?"

"I have not slept in five days."

"Ah." She replied

I turned and opened the door to the next room, preparing to go to my futon. Nirakumi made a gesture of protest;

"Hey, wait a minute! Are you going to assign me rooms, or do I have to sleep in a tree?" I faced her and allowed a faint smile to creep across my face; I imagined it must have looked rather evil.

"I suppose you have to sleep in a tree." I stepped into the next room and slid the door shut behind me, leaving Nirakumi with quite an indignant look on her face.

Thank you for tuning in for the first chapter of _Golden Eyes_

Next time: does Sesshomaru like cherry blossoms?

Will Jaken get kicked again?

And is Sesshomarus entire family lousy poets?

This and more in the next overdone edition of _Golden Eyes_


	2. a twist of fate: the bone eaters well

Scroll two:

A twist of fate; the bone eaters well 

I awoke slowly, not quite letting myself wake up, just floating in that half conscious haze. Two enormous brown eyes seemed to swim up in my vision, and I felt an odd prodding sensation on my forehead. Even so I, refused to wake up fully; I may not need sleep often, but when I do sleep, I don't wake up easily.

I felt a pressure I had not been aware of leave my chest, and the sound of a small body walking across the room to the door. I rolled my head languorously to one side and saw through the haze that the door was partially opened. A startling clanging noise like the sound of metal clashing together coming from the next room woke me up fully. I sat up and looked around my chamber, the door _was_ slightly ajar, and I could see through to the next room. Sunlight fully illuminated it, causing some of the relics I kept on the table to glint as if they had their own internal light.

Rins' scent was on the air, and I could hear her rustling in the next room. How had she gotten in here? And why had she been poking my forehead? I knew the brown eyes I had seen while semi-conscious where hers. That girl was becoming too resourceful for her own good.

There was another crash from the next room, what the hell was Rin doing? From here it sounded as if she was playing with my armor, possibly even tenseiga judging by the noise she was making. But she wouldn't even be able to lift the tenseiga, let alone draw it.

Trying to keep from yawning, I stood up, managing to keep my usual grace. One thing I had learned in my quest for power was to never show weakness, even when you are alone. And sleepiness counted as a weakness. This was something that my father had told me as well, one of the few things he had actually taught me. I jolted myself out of this train of thought; it was unpleasant to dwell on, of course the only sign I gave of this sudden track change was a slow blink. I turned to investigate the adjacent room.

As I opened the door further, there was a loud thunk and a splintering sound; not quite as startling as the clangs of metal I had heard, but slightly more ominous. I viewed the following scene with my prided impassivity, though that's hardly what I felt; incredulity would be a more apt description of what I felt.

Rin was sitting next to a pile containing my armor, tenseiga, and the wooden rack I had placed them on; the rack was in pieces. It became apparent to me that she had pushed my armor off the rack, the first clang, followed by the tenseiga, the second noise. And to top it all off, the rack itself, how she had managed to splinter it into the many pieces it was now in was beyond me, but I was coming to expect odd things from her.

I was also coming to terms, reluctantly, with the fact that Rin was yet another tag along who was going to follow me whether I liked it or not. The girl showed so much determination, that I had no doubt that if she truly put her mind to coming with me, that there wasn't anything I could do to stop her, short of killing her. And that, as I had already said would be a waist of energy. A thought tugged at the edge of my mind, saying that I was making excuses. Excuses for what? I pushed the thought aside.

Speaking of tag-alongs, where was Nirakumi? I could not smell her anywhere within the palace complex. Feh!

First things first, I reached down and disengaged Rin from the mess she had made of my belongings. As I picked her up and set her away from pile of armor, swords and wood splinters, I looked down at her coldly, sincerely wondering why I had been concerned that she might have hurt herself. Rin looked right back up at me.

I did not feel entirely annoyed by the situation, I also felt a trace of amusement; that such a small creature like her could manage to be so destructive had to amuse someone like me.

Feeling refreshed from the brief respite of sleep, I was now fully awake. And had business to attend to, so amusing or not, I had no desire to baby-sit Rin. She was still looking up at me as if expecting me to amuse her. I had no intention of doing anything of the sort.

I reached into the pile she had made and retrieved my armor; strapping it over my front and securing it with my yellow and purple sash, tying it carefully and checking to make sure the knot was secure. I looked down at my missing arm dispassionately; reaching over I pulled my kimono sleeve through the looped shoulder guard, allowing the sleeve to hang freely.

I sorely missed that arm, and my plan to find it would make Inuyasha pay for taking it. I would retrieve my arm and then I would kill the little bastard.

Rin had not yet moved from where I had set her, and she did not move when I stooped down to pick up tenseiga. Securing it through my sash, I wondered, as I had on countless occasions before, why I kept it with me, and once again I could not find an answer. It vexed me that I was coming up with so many unanswered questions, I had enough in my life before, and I did not believe I need anymore.

I glanced at Rin once more; she was yet another unanswered question, her entire being was a question about the state of my soul. But today I was not looking for answers, so she would have to be dealt with.

We looked at each other for a moment before I reached down and gripped the neck of her kimono, as I hoisted her up she smiled and clapped her hands, not struggling at all. So with her still grinning and clapping her hands, swinging in my grip like a kitten in its mothers jaws, we set off through the corridors.

It took no effort on my part to locate Jaken, I found him directing the cleaning of the reception hall. Still hanging by her collar, Rin had stopped clapping and was watching the cleaning with great interest. I approached Jaken from behind, walking quietly like I usually do. He had not yet noticed me as I began tapping my foot behind him. The servants did notice me however and went to attention. I continued to tap my foot as he yelled at the cleaners to speed up. Finally my patience wore down; I set Rin in front of him, stating

"I assumed that you would know better than to dismiss servants whom I have called to attention Jaken, or do you need another lesson in etiquette?" the look on his face as he half turned, half jumped to face me was extremely amusing, as it was something akin to abject terror. I allowed my lips to quirk upward in a faint smile; people have a tendency to run when I smile, at least, people that know me have a tendency to run. It's the cliché that says; smile; it will make people wonder what you're up to. As expected, the look on Jakens' face deepened to a look of animalistic panic, and I could smell it as he broke into a cold sweat. An extremely satisfying reaction

I had to give him credit though, it must take something for him to still be here at my feet; a lesser creature probably would have run. He hopped anxiously from foot to foot, trying to apologize.

"M-my Lord Sesshomaru! Please forgive me; I-I was not aware of your presence! I-I would never…" I cut him off

"Are you saying that I am not worthy of notice?"

"N-no my lord what I meant was …" I cut him off again by stepping on him; I didn't feel like listening to any explanations this morning.

"Take care of Rin, see to it that she does not bother me, and I will not ask why she was allowed in my rooms." I walked away without a backwards glance, but I knew Jaken relaxed as I turned; he was relieved to have gotten off with only a simple reprimand. As I exited the hall I heard him scold Rin under his breath;

"Why the master keeps you around I will never know, but since you're staying you better start behaving. You've already caused me enough trouble. Don't run off again."

The truth be told, I hardly blamed Jaken for the girls behavior, she was, after all an independent being. But if allowing him to think so might inspire him to watch her more closely, then so be it.

As I made my way down the hall, and passed a banner of a crane encircled by a crescent moon much like the one on my brow, a scent on the air caught my attention. It was the delicate fragrance of the sakura blossoms. It had been what felt like a long time since I had visited the grove while it was in bloom. It was unusual that it felt so long to me, I rarely ever felt or noticed the turning of the year. The scent was like an invitation to walk in solitude, a chance to collect my thoughts without the distractions that had plagued me since my recovery from the injuries I had suffered from the steel-cleaving fang.

I would visit the cherry grove before I leave, if Nirakumi wanted to talk to me before I left she would have to find me, I was not going to search for her, even if I was curious as to were she was.

The trees surrounded me as I closed my eyes, breathing in the scent of this ancient grove. It had been old when I was a child, two hundred years ago. I reflected upon the feeling of the time that had elapsed since I last saw this grove in bloom, how unusual it felt to notice time in a seasonal manner again. The blossoms fell around me thick as snow, as if the tree's wept. I had never cried, it just wasn't something I had ever cared to do.

The last time I truly remembered a season was seventy-five years earlier, in this same grove in fact, or perhaps _grave _would be a better term. I looked again at the falling blossoms; in my mind they had become tears, and the trees wept for my mother. The blossoms changed in my mind to the snow they so resembled, taking me back to that winter, the last season I ever really took note of before now.

In my memory I ran, not for any distinct reason, just to run. I sped through the trees, my hair flowing out behind me as the snow flecked my face. I wore no armour, only the white and red raiment that I favored. I took a large bound before jumping high into the air, through the tree branches, which were now in the lifeless-ness of winter. I continued to rise into the air; I had leapt high enough to find the illusion of flight. I looked up, the snow swarmed down around me in random and enchanting patterns. When I began to descend I brought my arms up as I prepared to land. My long sleeves as well as my hair, twisted violently in the air behind me, but I held my arms spread out and slightly bent. I landed on my feet, sending flurries of snow into the air. As it settled once more, some of it clung to me.

I continued through the trees, I did not run again though. The center of the grove was close, and running did not suit that place. Flickering lights danced among the limbs as I approached the pool in the center of the cherry trees.

I did not get my first glimpse of the water until after I had passed through the finely carved gate of stone through the trees that surrounded it, even in winter; the hedge of trees is too close knit to see past. The water was a perfect blue, and was untouched by the falling snow. The pool refracted light that came from nowhere, so that stars shimmered in the deep, and the trees around it seem to move with glittering light. I sat down beside the water my back against a tree; looking into it, I reached out and brushed my fingers over its surface. Though the air was cold enough for the pool to have been ice, the water was barely cold to the touch. As the ripples from my touch spread over the pool, words raised themselves up on the surface.

_Here lies the honored lady Kia,_

_Where the stars drink deep_

_And the immortals sleep_

_The moon will shine on a night of forever_

_The sun will depart from the world of nether_

_The key to a heart _

_From a world apart_

_What was lost will never be found_

_The end of a life so profound _

As I read these words, I felt an emptiness I have never quite explained. My mother had been dead for five years, and I thought myself at peace with her death, yet, whenever I read those words I feel that emptiness. I stood, taking one last look at the pool that marks my mothers grave before leaving through the gate.

The snow continued to fall upon the bleak trees, oblivious to fate.

The memory faded and the snow became drifting cherry blossoms once more. The scent of the fresh spring air brought me to my senses as I walked through the grove, crushing the delicate blossoms underfoot. I had told Nirakumi that sentimentality was a weakness, but know I found myself making my way to the marker in the center of the grove

There was no distinct path, so the lush grass that poked through the cherry blossoms underfoot was thick and springy. Looking at the ground was a jarring sensation, the pink and green colors mixed in a chaotic, yet subtle pattern, and the sakura trees surrounding me created a sensation as if I were floating in a world not quite within the limits of reality.

As I grew closer to the pool, a burst of wind whistled through the trees, causing my hair to float out on the wind, gusting to one side in a violent manner. The fur that adorns my shoulder rippled slowly in this vengeful breeze as well.

The gates of the cherry hedge consisted of two strong pillars taller than I was as I am now, and were decorated with spirals and kanji, spells for safe passage into the other realm. The question of whether or not my mother actually had made it there was unimportant; Nirakumi would probably be able to tell me, but the answer would be trivial. Not even the tenseiga could bring my mother back.

The lights of the stars in the water still flickered through the trees; will 'o' the wisps of half seen light. The true vibrancy of the light is always somehow contained in the crystalline waters. No sakura flowers floated on the waters surface, though they littered the shore around it. The pool was a little less than six feet wide, and almost round. The light flickered through the water and up against the upper canopy, as the branches, now laden with the spring's efforts, closed in over the pool. The effect of false twilight this created would have been enchanting to someone else I suppose, but it made little difference to me.

I bent and retrieved a small stone from the side of the pool; I stood and tossed the stone gently into the air, caught it, then skipped it along the waters surface. As the ripple spread and the stone bounced over the pool, the words of the marker appeared, embossing themselves upon the sparkling blue water. I gazed into the water, not really reading the words, just looking at the shinning starlight that glinted in the deep.

A voice, resonant with the intonation of

"Rest in peace." Startled me out of my contemplation.

Nirakumi now stood beside me, having managed another stealth approach that would have been impossible for a lesser being. Her face was solemn, devoid of the slight hint of laughter that was usually present on her face when alive. In fact without that hint of mirth she looked as she does when dead. She held a black rose in her hands, her long fingers holding the flower with delicate elegancy.

I stood rigid, my annoyance that she had startled me once again building up inside. She did not look at me at all; she considered the rose contemplatively as she twirled it slowly in her hands. She seemed absolutely absorbed in the texture and pattern of those black petals. Nirakumi looked up at the pool, then held the rose before her in a slow gesture, before dropping it gently onto the water. It hit the surface with a sound like a drop of water echoing through a cave, and then in an almost deliberate movement, the stem sank beneath the water. The rose floated on the water for a moment before being dragged down under the surface after the stem. Instead of continuing it's descent into the star-flecked waters however, the black rose stopped just under the surface, as if some invisible thread supported it.

I was seething; not letting my anger show on my face was becoming increasingly difficult. So instead of lashing out at Nirakumi with my anger, I turned and walked away with slow and deliberate steps, Nirakumi remained alone and in silence as she gazed at the black rose she had left on my mothers' grave.

I followed the trail of crushed grass I had made on my way through the grove, intending to make my way back to the palace. While I strode along the incidental path, I tried to conquer this sudden and unreasonable surge of anger that had almost overtaken me at the pool. Annoyance at Nirakumi I could understand of myself, but where had such irrational anger come from? It had been a long time since I had felt that I could not control my emotions, I did not strive for a complete emotional lockup, but this anger was absurd! The objective was not to let emotions make me act without thinking. Yet just now Nirakumi had made me angry, angry to the point were I had almost acted on that anger.

I continued walking in silence, when I heard a stir in the grass behind me. For once, I heard Nirakumi as she approached, I did not turn to see her, I knew by her scent and sound that she glided gracefully behind me. I continued to walk through the grove, trying my best to ignore her. I did not succeed well in doing that, she had a very imposing presence, and it was hard for me to willingly drop my guard against someone as unpredictable as her.

There was a respectful silence between us, a quiet so deep that it seemed that the silence stopped my progress toward the palace, it felt almost permeable. As I halted I heard her stop behind me. She sighed heavily;

"Why are you mad at me?" Finally, I turned to face her;

"If you know I am angry, you should know why." She gave me a disparaging look

"Sesshomaru, you better than most should understand that body language can say much more than facial expressions, I don't need telepathy to tell me you are angry at me."

I turned away from her again,

"I am not sure why I am angry." I told her. This was a great admittance on my part, but I did not want to be caught in a lie.

"May I speculate?" she asked. I gave her a piercing look over my shoulder, but she continued;

"Sesshomaru, you see yourself as wholly evil, correct?"

"Human terms of right and wrong are irrelevant. I see myself as a demon, and act accordingly." I said

"Then in human terms you see yourself as evil." Nirakumi paused to sweep her hair back over her shoulder before she continued

"I believe the reason you are angry at me is because you are not as nasty as you'd like to think you are."

This made absolutely no sense to me, I was who I was, the demon lord of the western lands, I needed no guises. And how would being nice cause me to be angry?

She had more to say on the subject however, and so she proceeded

"Let me explain… there is no good or evil, no definite black and white within you, but you have deceived yourself into thinking other wise, that your soul is black. But despite your self deceivance, your soul is painted by the shades of gray, just like mine, and just like your brothers."

I turned to face her fully, brandishing my talons.

"Do not liken me to my bastard brother again, Nirakumi. He is an idiot I intend to be rid of."

She appeared to ignore me; however, she did not mention Inuyasha again.

"The point I am trying to get across, Sesshomaru, is that in that moment when I left the rose at the lady Kia's grave, you saw me solely as the one who took your mother from this world, and you are right. You felt that when I left an offering to the dead, I was desecrating your mother's grave."

"What reasons have I to care about my mother's grave?" I protested coldly

"And before that, why would it matter to me that you're the goddess of death? Even if you personally escorted her to the next realm, why should I care?" I brought my hand up to my face, running my fingers idly through some strands of hair that had fallen over my shoulder.

She shook her head and picked her legs up off the ground, an interesting operation the end of which resulted with her reclining in midair, her hands behind her head. She turned her head to face me as she continued in a bored tone that grated on my nerves;

"If you do not care, then why are you continuously drawn to her grave? Sesshomaru, whether you will admit it or not, the lady Kia was the only person who ever showed you affection when you where a child, and you still mourn her. Because you _cared_ about you mother, even if it was only on a subconscious level, so you were angry at me for doing what I did.

Even though you don't know it, your soul resides in the twilight, neither dark nor light"

She put her feet back on the ground and walked past me on her way to the palace, leaving me alone with my thoughts amongst the cherry trees. The questions of my soul grew deeper as I stared into the falling blossoms. I may not have been looking for answers today, but it appeared I was going to get them, whether I wanted to or not.

As I left Sesshomaru mulling over the psychological mess I had just made him aware of, I wondered if it would really make a difference. When I thought about it, I decided that it wouldn't matter in the slightest to him. He has such a vibrant personality that telling him the reasons for his actions would not really have changed him. His behavior has been backed up by some very strong convictions, and I wasn't sure if I could ever make a difference.

But did I really want to change him? An interesting question, and unfortunately, despite my earlier purpose, I did not have an answer. Sesshomaru is who he is, his personality may be violent, but he has a quality to him that is not quite like anything I have ever encountered. The flame of his mind is unique, and I was not sure if wanted to extinguish it by making him change who he is.

Something in his silent and dangerous demeanor, something in the hidden tragedy that flickered in his golden eyes every now and then, that not even he was aware of, makes him just as unreadable as he finds me. The lady Kia had warned me of something to this effect, but I had not listened.

Kia was an interesting piece to this puzzle, possibly even a key piece. Having not known her during her life, all I could say was she had a surprisingly beautiful soul… as far as demons go. It had been an understatement to say that she had shown Sesshomaru _affection _when he was young, she had truly and deeply cared for him. Of course being a demon, she hadn't been crazy about humans, but she was not too happy about Sesshomaru blaming Inuyasha for his father's next choice in mates either.

The palace loomed up ahead of me, and I could see Rin playing upon the steps, obviously awaiting Sesshomaru's return. I continued to approach, watching her play with a leather ball, it was then that the idea came to me; I would take Sesshomaru through the well, show him what humans will achieve in the future. I would invent some crazy reason that would be acceptable to him of course, but it might just allow him to see both sides for once. Allow him to see that humans will not always be so pathetic as they are in this era, and that despite his assumptions, they do have potential.

I decided the only way to find out what my words meant to Sesshomaru, I would have to tune into his thoughts. I began to climb the steps and as I cast out in search of his mind, a throbbing sensation began in my temple. The headache I get from using telepathy had only been worsened by the fact that I had spent a miserable night sleeping in a cherry tree. I supposed I could have found my own room in the palace, but when the master of the palace tells you that he's not going to give you a room, its best not to sleep in that palace, even if you happen to be a goddess. Thinking back to the night before, I realize I probably shouldn't have given him ideas, when I said "or do I have to sleep in a tree" but it_ had_ been intended as sarcasm. Honestly!

Nevertheless my head was pounding by the time I located him. I gave a start as I realized that he was right behind me. I spun around, unable to hide the fact that he had surprised me. He gave me one of those sharp looks that I was becoming accustomed to, and in his cold quiet voice, said;

"So you're surprised to see me? You have no right to look angry about it, you have surprised me often enough that it's only fair."

I felt color creep into my face and saw a glimmer of grim satisfaction in his eyes that he had managed to unhinge me. I struggled to regain my composure. If he was going to make it into a contest, so be it.

I put on my best maniacal grin and decided on the best tactic to approach the subject of the well to him. The blunt approach would probably work best at this point

"I think it would be a good idea to take a stroll in the future."

Though he displayed no outward surprise at what I told him, I could tell thatgot his attention. I could see the curiosity warring with scorn in his eyes, eventually curiosity won out. _See, he's not completely cynical. _

"And how do you propose to do that?" he said it with an accent on the how.

"Have you ever wondered how your brother's companion came here?" I asked.

"Do you always try to make your points with questions?" he countered, ignoring the mention of Inuyasha.

_So much for trying to be a teacher. _

"You want it spelled out? Fine, be that way." I said with a look of petulance on my face. "Deep in the forest near Keades' village resides the bone eater well. The villagers used to use it to get rid of the bodies of slain demons, like a magical waist disposal unit…"

He shifted his stance on the step ever so slightly; as if he wanted to ask what a waist disposal unit was, but remained silent. I continued.

"So the villagers would dump the bones in the well, and poof! The next day they would be gone. Hence the name bone eaters well.

The villagers never really investigated what happened to the remains, trying to leave well enough alone, I suppose." I grimaced slightly at the pun I had inadvertently made as I spoke.

"However, after Kegomei fell through the well to this era it became apparent that the remains were displaced in time."

"So, one can use the well to travel in time." He concluded

"If you happen to be a demon, or a human with shikon shards." I corrected

He reflected on that information before responding.

"Why do you feel going forward in time would help me?"

"Because Kegomei goes home every week or so, and Inuyasha doesn't stick around to protect her after she goes home. And if your plan is what I think it is, it will be easier to capture her there when she lets her guard down."

I waited and let the information sink in, Nothing ever showed on his face, unless he wanted it to(the ultimate poker face) so I had no way of knowing whether he would listen to me or not. Even if I did know, or I decided to use telepathy, there was nothing I could do about it, at least not in accordance with our agreement.

My heart sank as he began to walk past me towards the palace doors without responding. He stopped just before the great double entrance. I focused my attention on him, wondering what else he had to say. He addressed me without looking back.

"What assurance do I have that I can trust you as a guide through time?" I felt a surge of relief, like an invisible hand releasing my solar plexus.

"You have the oath of a goddess." I replied.

"Perhaps." Was all he said before he disappeared into the shadows of the palace.

I didn't know whether to be insulted or relieved; probably both.

Well that wraps it up for this chapter. Please keep in mind that in the manga, Rin did not talk at first. That is why she has yet to say anything in this story

Next time: is Sesshomaru completely sadistic?

Will Nirakumi ever shut up?

Am I just wasting my time writing this?

…

Hello, is any body out there?

…

Hello?

…

…

…

…

I feel alone all of the sudden.


	3. cerberus: a decidedly un japanese myth

Scroll three:

Cerberus the three headed dog; a decidedly un-Japanese myth

As I floated along the corridors behind him I allowed myself to wonder what he intended to do with the information I had given him. Before I got far with this train of thought, I was distracted by the energetic figure skipping along beneath me. Rin had waited next to us on the steps with what seemed an enormous amount of patience for a child, but she would be ignored no longer.

Reminding me of a kittens' behavior, she jumped up and down trying to catch hold of my kimono. I watched with amusement as she bounced, skipped, twirled, and generally seemed to defy the laws of physics, (such that they were) trying to catch hold of my black silk robes. All In all it proved a most entertaining display of acrobatics.

Sesshomaru turned and looked at us; he beckoned me forward with a small motion of his hand as he turned back. And almost as an after thought, he said

"Rin, go find Jaken." I looked at Rin and saw that she paused for just a moment, with a sullen look on her face, before turning and running off into a side corridor. I had no doubt that she would harass the little midget to within an inch of his life.

I returned my attention to Sesshomaru. Walking forward with the same deliberate pace as before, he did not even look at me as he spoke;

"Why do you really want me to go through the well?" I nearly fell out of the air in shock; was I that easy to read? I recovered my composure enough to reply

"What makes you think I have any other reason besides helping you?" I asked in what I hoped was my most innocent voice. If anything the voice I used only seemed to cue him onto the fact that I had something to hide. He gave me a cold glare that seemed as if it could and would freeze me in my tracks.

"Nirakumi, I have learned that deities do nothing unless there is personal gain for them, and the same could be said of any earthly creature."

"What about those that give for giving's sake?" I countered.

"Those who give get something out of it as well, the feeling of ...." He thought for a minute, searching for the correct term. "Well being." He concluded. "They also, in most cases, receive gratitude."

He had me there, putting it like that; even the nicest deeds seemed self serving. I turned over in the air to look at him so that I was floating ahead of him on my back.

"Well then I guess I must be in it for the feeling of well being, because from what you just told me I won't expecting any gratitude." He nodded his head and was about to say something, but instead frowned at something behind me. His arm snaked out and grabbed my ankle to stop me as I turned my head to see what he had noticed, and found a six foot pike a centimeter away from my nose. He pulled me slowly away from the pike until I was half a meter away from it. The thing was part of a display case of samurai armor.

Shaken, I put my feet back on the ground, then realized what he had been about to say. A grin spread across my face.

"You were about to say something about gratitude?" I queried.

"Yes." he replied "your assumption is correct. Only a fool would expect gratitude." I threw up my hands in disgust.

"Why, if not out of gratitude, did you just stop me from skewering myself?"

"Expediency. I do not want to wait wile you resurrect yourself." I looked at him with open astonishment.

I stalked away from him, muttering under my breath.

"Excuses."

"Did you wish to say something?" He called after me. I ignored him and went on muttering to myself.

I floated among the braches of the tree just above where Sesshomaru was sitting; his eyes closed and nose to the wind.

We had stopped in the forest a few miles away from the well, waiting to be sure Kegomei was gone from this time. The tree whose branches I now occupied was on a precipice overlooking most of the forest. Looking out I could see a particularly tall tree close to the far edge, surrounded by an almost even carpet of green and orange as the sun settled below the horizon. The two headed beast that I knew Rin silently called Ah-Run was tethered a distance away, eyeing the cliff drop-off warily.

I personally, was doing a bit of eaves dropping. When I mind read, I only really catch snippets of thought, bit's and pieces of whatever is foremost on the subjects mind. Thus, I was listening to whatever he was thinking, and occasionally stating my opinion out loud. To him this was me at my most annoying, though he would kill me again before admitting it.

Finally I heard something interesting.

I will set the trap... there was a pause in my disjointed telepathic reception. keep him alive only to open his eye another pause I will kill Inuyasha

I decided to add my own comment to that last one.

"You know, it is possible to get along with him." He stared up at me with a look that should have sent small animals running. And said very clearly

"No, it is not."

As I said those words I heard her giggle above me, her scent abruptly changed. I had enough time to notice that her normally red hair was now white before she jumped down to land next to me.

"I think you two need a sister." She stated in a sardonic tone.

I stood up suddenly. What I saw next was enough to prove to me that this insufferable deity would go to any lengths to drive me insane.

She had, quite literally, become my sister.

As I had glimpsed briefly before, her hair was now pure white, and though her facial structure remained unchanged; several dog clan markings had appeared on her countenance. She had only on set of stripes, one on either side of her face, and the crescent lay sideways on her brow, the points aiming up.

The markings quite clearly stated that she was the second child and first daughter of my late father.

For the first time in my life I was at a loss as to how to react. This was simply too outrageous to be within my realm of experience, though my face betrayed nothing of what I was feeling. There may have been a time, long ago, when I would have stood gaping in surprise at the spectacle before me, maybe.

She grinned widely, revealing a set of fangs, before suddenly she was herself again. I felt like killing her for this insult to my heredity, but could not unless she broke our agreement of non-interference. I probably wouldn't have killed her even if the agreement had never been made but an insult must be dealt with. I considered my options and came to a calculated decision.

As she doubled over laughing I broke her arm.

Her laughter died abruptly and turned to choking shock as her arm snapped between my fingers; I could feel her forearm as it tensed and went limp. It now hung at an odd angle to the rest of her of her arm, fractured as it was between her wrist and elbow. I did not let go of her broken limb, instead I gripped the break in my hand and squeezed, her eyes widened and she gasped in pain.

To her credit she had not yet screamed. But she was visibly trembling in pain.

"Do not presume to be my sister, even in jest." I strengthened my grip just a fraction to get my point across. "You know fully well that you are not prepared for what being my kin would entail." I made sure to enunciate every word.

She smiled weakly, her teeth gritting through the pain.

"It would appear that it entails you trying to kill them, among other things."

"Among other things." I agreed.

I loosened my grip on her arm, and slid my hand down to her wrist and jerked her arm suddenly, this time she did scream, a high piercing sound as her bone snapped back into place with an audible pop. High above us a flock of birds started into the air at the earsplitting sound of her shriek.

I released her arm and she stumbled back, gripping her wounded arm, there was a flare of power from her unwounded arm as she began to heal the break. She put her entire concentration into it. As she healed herself I studied her closely. She was even more pale than usual, and her face was drenched in a cold sweat. She was hunched over her arm and I could smell her pain, but there was no fear, and I did not expect any. What I did expect was anger, but there wasn't any of that either. All that I could smell was pain; there was no emotion at all.

She looked up slowly; her eyes were blank as the stars. She looked at me with a level gaze.

"Pain is an emotion." She said dully "just as much of an emotion as fear or anger." She took a shuddering breath and continued "you can be trained so that pain does not affect you just as with any other emotion. Yet you will still feel it. You can laugh in its face. I thought I could, but when it comes down to it I guess I have no clue."

She gave a weak, self deprecating laugh; as if inviting me to join in. I remained impassive, looking at her mutely. I could smell as the adrenaline drained from her system, she was coming out of shock.

"I really don't have any idea about corporeal beings; I thought I was all knowing, that I understood what it is to live." She rolled her eyes toward the sky her face tilting upward. And spoke as if to some higher power. "This is part of it, isn't it Amaterasu? I thought I was just going to try to perform the experiment and be done with it. But the experiment is on me too. You want me to understand what it is to live before I can truly comprehend that which I rule." She hung her head again and when she spoke it was barely a whisper "And I rule Death don't I?

But her pain was already disappearing; I could feel her resolve strengthen again, resolve for what I was still not sure of. She straitened her back, her hand still on her healing arm and spoke to me once again "However this changes nothing, I am still coming with you."

I allowed nothing to show on my face, I merely turned away and gazed out over the forest, which was now drenched in a blood colored glow from the setting sun.

I heard a rustling sound behind me as of cloth moving around a body. I turned my head to see her standing with one arm pressed against the bark of the tree and flexing the fingers of her previously broken arm. She lowered her arm,

"I'm ready to go." She said

And without another word we turned and continued on our way, descending the cliff and weaving our way through the blood red foliage of the forest

It came suddenly, but not without warning. I heard it coming just as Sesshomaru did, though he probably smelled it more than heard it. He stopped moving and looked around. I tied the dragons' reins up a short distance away; we had been approaching on foot rather than coming in through the air because the forest provided more cover than a flying approach would. So I had been guiding Ah-Run.

Sesshomaru turned to one side of the path, the direction the sound was coming from.

"I would like to see what presumes to attack me, for I do not recognize this scent. It has a most intriguing feel too it."

"Whatever happened to captain expediency?" I muttered. My little ordeal back on the cliff had not diminished my sarcasm in the least. Though I am far from forgetting what happened. Quite the opposite in fact, I will probably never forget what happened.

It bothered me somewhat that having my arm broken upset me more than dieing did. The further thought occurred that dieing didn't hurt nearly as much as having my arm broken. I began trying to puzzle that out.

But soon recalled that whatever it was, was nearly on top of us, and I would need my wits about me if I wanted to have enough time later to figure it out. Resurrecting takes a lot of time, and I had not yet told Sesshomaru, but tenseiga would not work on me, so it takes a bit of time to come back to life, such as it were.

The strange presence was coming ever closer, and perhaps most troubling of all; it almost felt familiar. I scrunched my eyebrows together, trying to puzzle it out. I had not even begun this existence more than a week ago, what in this world could possibly feel familiar?

The trees at the side of the footpath shuddered violently and the thing burst into the clearing just as I figured it out.

I watched in silent horror as a piece of hell incarnate burst onto the path. A dread emotion began to fill me, and I realized with no small amount of trepidation that it was panic, something that; in all my millennia of experience, I had not yet felt until now. This creature had six eyes, great and red in coloration. A fell black fire swarmed around it, so that the very ground it walked upon was raw and black. Its maniacally grinning faces were on level with Sesshomaru. It had three mouths, each turned up in some gruesome and frightening parody of a Cheshire cat grin, though one might be hard pressed to imagine a cattish grin on any thing so canine as a Cerberus.

For all of its frightening aura, this creature did not scare me so much as the thought of how it had come here. It was but a pup, but it was a grave thing indeed that it had crossed through the gates. Such creatures as hells watchdogs should not exist on this plane of reality.

Its hackles were raised, and though Sesshomaru appeared outwardly calm, I could see the tension singing through his body. When the Cerberus crashed onto the path, it stopped dead in front of Sesshomaru. I was dimly aware of ah-run rearing back franticly from the tree were I had tied him up.

It was coming to a point were I could not only see the tension, but I could actually feel the crackling contest of wills as Sesshomaru stared at the thing. When the pup bared its teeth and growled, Sesshomaru's face changed to a grim mask of dominance. The pup quailed a bit and looked a little forlorn but did not give ground.

It was then that I realized two things; this pup was the smallest of Cerberus' litter, vanargandr; and secondly, he was looking for me. Poor Cerberus must be going crazy looking for him, and here he's gotten him self lost on the physical plane.

I smiled to myself, and started laughing, both Sesshomaru and Vanargandr looked at me, Sesshomaru arrogantly and vanargandr with a puzzled expression. As I tried to calm down I realized that I was on the edge of hysterics, just before I lost control I managed to subdue my laughter. But believe me when I say you haven't seen anything till you've seen a seven foot tall Cerberus with a lost puppy look on all three faces.

Sesshomaru glared at me; "Since you seem to find this so amusing, perhaps you would care to tell me what it is before I kill it." He stretched and brandishing his claws to punctuate his words.

I stepped up between them; first I turned to vanargandr. In reality I snapped my fingers and a honey drenched oat cake appeared in my hand, but metaphysically speaking; I reached into the fabric of reality and created it. I gave it to vanargandr, and all three off his heads promptly began to fight over it. The Cerberus pup thus occupied, I turned to Sesshomaru and gestured to the pup.

"This is vanargandr."

"Do you believe me a fool Nirakumi?" he asked coldly "vanargandr is the name of the world destroying wolf of Norse mythology, otherwise known as Fenris. I suppose you expect me to play Tyr and give up my right hand as well so you can chain him with gleipnir?" he delivered this veritable speech with the same cool arrogance I've come to expect from him, the sarcasm was a bit of a surprise though. I didn't bother wondering were he'd learned so much about Norse mythology with Japan being such an isolated continent. For all I knew he was remembering family history. For all my omnipotence and psychic abilities, I realized I knew very little about him.

But he wasn't finished, for Sesshomaru this was highly unusual. When he wanted to say something he usually said it in as few words as possible, at least I knew that much about him.

"You have been insisting I listen to you, following me and being killed repeatedly. You cannot pretend you are merely interested in my life. In reality there is something I can do that is important enough for you to have been maneuvering me in a direction I am unsure I want to travel. It is time for you to tell me why. I have waited long enough, I want answers;" I stood rigidly as a deer caught in headlights. I was aware of the Cerberus pup behind me but I was unable to move my eyes from anything but Sesshomarus' eyes; I was thinking furiously and not bothering to hide it, there was no excuse I could give him now. The time of truth had come.

I finally wrenched my eyes away from Sesshomarus' and glanced back at Vanargandr. "All hell may be breaking lose," I muttered; and I meant it literally "but may the gods help hell if it gets in the way of Sesshomarus' plans." And I certainly would need the gods' help, all I could get in fact. I looked at him crossly "you know you're conceited, right Sesshomaru?" he didn't bother to deny or confirm that statement; he just looked at me. And strangest of all, that look actually worried me.

It occurred to me that I had been here to long; already I was reacting subconsciously to body language. That made me angry for a moment; I am a goddess I reminded myself, I am capable of erasing his very existence.

But you're not very sure of that, are you? A little nagging voice asked. And even if you were sure you could, you wouldn't do it, because you're still running that experiment of yours. So you have to be nice to him; he has no such restriction, he can hurt you all he wants, and it wouldn't break your precious agreement as long as he doesn't kill you.

I brushed aside those thoughts, but a bit of the anger stayed, and it helped to focus me. I gave another honey cake to vanargandr, and settled into the air with a sigh. As I folded my hands over my stomach I told him

"You're not gonna like this."

"undoubtedly." I said. And I listened as the truth unveiled itself through the unlikely medium of Nirakumis' impertinent words, keeping half an eye on the Cerberus, vanargandr all the while.

"Your entire family and history was shrouded from non corporeal eyes, so for quite a while we would find the entire political structure would shift apparently randomly, but in fact due to something one of the dog clan had done, and no deity could see what had happened." I felt a touch of astonishment at the unlikely beginning of what was sure to be a strange tale. She continued speaking, apparently oblivious to my thoughts for once.

"I took a special interest when the lady Kia arrived in my domain -the first of your family to ever arrive in the realm of the dead. What she told me when I found her was rather interesting. Apparently your clan has its own little afterlife reality; something that I had formerly believed impossible." Now there was an interesting bit of information. I felt mixed emotions over the thought of seeing my sire again. He had been a great lord and still I respect him, but he was never much of a father. I wondered idly if Inuyasha would go there when he died and shuddered inwardly, I could think of no worse punishment than to spend the rest of eternity trapped with him. Nirakumi went on.

"Your mother was originally of a different clan, she wanted to rejoin them in death instead of going to your clans' afterlife. So she was the first who knew your clan secrets to come to my realm."

I felt an immediate surge of anger at the implication of those words. Why would my mother betray my clan in such a way, even in death? I said nothing, though I wanted to. I would let Nirakumi finish this strange story of her before I exacted punishment.

"She had been the first hint into this mysterious catalytic force the gods had been looking for; a mysterious lady and demoness, and apparently of a well established clan that we knew nothing about." She paused to give the Cerberus another foul smelling cake, apparently to keep it distracted. This time was no different than the last two, she would pull the thing out of thin air and give it to the three headed beast, and it would promptly start fighting with itself over which head got the cake. Such a backward creature truly did belong only in hell and the imaginations of the very young. She went on with her story.

"To say that this raised eyebrows would be an understatement. I realized that we had to control this changing force or it would cause irreparable damage to the consistency of reality." she paused looked at me sharply, as if assessing the effect of that bit of news had on me. She went on.

"So, I went to Amaterasu and petitioned for her to allow me to come here and see what I might..." she paused, and then went on tentatively.

"And change what I could." She concluded. With that final statement she fell silent and waited for my reaction. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was expecting anger, she had told me as much before she even started. However I felt no anger any more, I was past that now, all I felt was the sheer cold logic of it.

My mother had no reason to be loyal to the dog clan in life, yet she was, though her only tie had been my birth; she had not loved my father, and nobody expected her too. Their marriage had been purely political. I doubt my sire could have ever married for love even had he tried; he was a great lord, and consequentially was not very nice, to put it in human terms. And besides that, what use have we demons for love. Even now it seems such a distant concept.

So why should anyone, even myself, expect her to remain loyal to the clan after final judgment and the shedding of reality?

I could find no answer to that, nor did I expect to.

"My, that's certainly open minded of you, Sesshomaru." Nirakumi interrupted my thoughts. I glared at her, but she would not be deterred.

"So, have you decided whether or not we are going into the future?"

"We? You still intend to come with me even though I know what you're doing?"

"Yes."

"Very well, but keep in mind I am going only to capture Inuyashas' wench, not to fulfill your hidden agenda."

"I would hardly call my agenda hidden anymore, not after I just told you everything." I turned my head and looked up the path.

"Do not pretend that you have told me everything, Nirakumi. I dislike being lied to." She paled ever so slightly, a reaction that told me that my fishing had struck home. So, there was more. Never the less, it could wait.

"You may tell me later." I told her "we have business to attend to."

"Oh, yes." She regained her composure.

"Onward! Back to the future!" she struck a dramatic pose, pointing forward on the path and grinned at some strange inside joke. I didn't understand and was quite sure that if I did, I would think it just as foolish as the rest of her inane jokes.

"Now." I reminded her "you can either deal with this creature or I can kill it, whichever you prefer." I gestured towards the Cerberus, the middle head perked up at my motion as if it were expecting me to give some treat. I glanced at it imperiously, hoping it would leave.

Nirakumi stood stock still, her entire stance changing to one of fearful apprehension.

Vanargandr, sensing the change in the air, gave me a sad, pathetic look but did not leave. Instead, it pawed the ground a bit and looked again to Nirakumi, who glanced at me tensely and snapped her fingers yet again. There was a slight tremor in her other hand as she stood rigidly performing another spell. This time however, she did not produce another cake. This time, vanargandr himself changed; he became a sweet faced human child, with dark, curly hair, cream colored skin, and dark brown eyes.

"Now," she said "can you kill something as angelic as this?" there was a slight quaver in her voice. I realized that she was not afraid of me, she was fearful of what actions I would take.

I looked at the boy for a long moment, he did look rather angelic in the European sense of the word, but I'd never really cared for Europe, or its monotheist religions. The last thing we needed was to be toting around another helpless child, it would be so much simpler to eviscerate him and be done with it.

I raised my claws, preparing to strike...

Dun-dun-dun... I will be evil and leave you hanging there. Now you will be eaten up by the question: will Sesshomaru kill vanargandr or wont he? And will Nirakumi actually make herself useful, or will she just keep getting herself killed? And when the hell is Rin going to start talking?

Tune in next time for another boring chapter of Golden Eyes.


	4. dragons claw: oroborous legacy

Scroll four:

Dragons claw, Oroborous' legacy

I raised my claws, preparing to strike. I could feel venom slicking across them, ready to kill at the slightest scratch, and this would be much deeper than a scratch.

Vanargandr looked up at me with complete innocence in his dark eyes. That's all there was, innocence. No intelligence, no fear, not even some sort of twisted misplaced trust. The little girl, no, Rins' face flashed in my mind for an instance and I realized that while they're eyes were exactly the same color and shape, they're gaze was nothing alike.

Rins' gaze held a deep intelligence, and a thirst for knowledge. When I looked in her eyes I saw incurable optimism and a fragile innocence and the so many other different and conflicting things that made her up. Remembering her made me hate vanargandr even more. There was nothing in his eyes but a dull, stupid, innocence. His eyes were not vacant, he was there, but that was all there was to him.

I struck.

And just as suddenly he wasn't there any more, my hand swept though a wispy cloud of jasmine incense. It eddied around my hand for a moment as the bright moonlight refracted through it, and then began to dissipate into the crisp night air.

"Were did you send him?" I queried. Nirakumi gave me a sullen glare

"Why do you care?" she spat

"Idle curiosity. It doesn't matter were you sent him, as long as he's out of my hair."

"Yes you seem to have quite a lot of that." She muttered sarcastically. I raised an eyebrow at that but otherwise let the comment slide. I can't go breaking her arm every time she insults me; well I could but what would be the point?

"I sent him back to hell." Her face was twisted with smoldering anger and something else; sadness, maybe disappointment. She hid it well, yet still it was there. Disappointment at what? Myself perhaps. I filed it away along with her earlier fear of my actions.

"A fitting place." I replied

We continued on our way through the moonlit woods, the thick smells of bamboo, cypress, and sandalwood filled the air. Where there were gaps in the trees bright columns of moonlight filtered through the canopy, so that the leaves appeared silver lined in places, the dew sparkled like diamonds and the pathway was dappled with the full moons light.

The shadows were deep, but not so dark that I could not see were we went, and what I could not see I could smell. The forest path traversed a patchwork of territories belonging to a variety of lesser demons and normal animals. Some scents were more interesting than others: here was a nautilus spirit, quite a bit further inland than one would expect of a seafaring creature. There was a tengu, a birdlike spirit not found often, even on the main island of Japan, were they originate. There was even a great reptile, predating the evolution of humans, slumbering beneath the earth.

Yet despite the rarity of all these things, I cared little about them; there are many fascinating things in this world, and perhaps long ago I would have found them worth my time, but this world is a large place, filled with wonders beyond imagining, from a deep trench at the bottom of the ocean that can crush a human body to the size of my fist from pressure alone, to great mountains that look like waterfalls of blood in the setting sun were it is impossible to breath at their summits. I have seen far too many of these wonders to find a few mere creatures interesting enough to delay for.

Having read my thoughts once again, Nirakumi broke the silence.

"How could you not find a _dinosaur_ interesting Sesshomaru?"

"Dinosaur?" I said repeating the unfamiliar word, it sounded Latin. After a moment's consideration I decided she meant the slumbering reptile.

"Their bones litter the earth, becoming as stone; they are a dead race one and all. What care should I have for the last remnant of the earth's long forgotten progeny?" I answered her question

"Well for one, isn't it fascinating that it has slept all these eons beneath the earth, surviving the countless cataclysms that extinguished its race?"

"No."

"Come on, aren't you the least bit curious to see what it looks like?"

"No Nirakumi, I am not. We are not going to make a detour to see a lizard."

"You're no fun at all." she pouted. I decided not to remark on that particular comment, as it made no sense at all. What could be fun about looking at a half dead lizard? Even if it was the size of a small palace, what would be the point? Its brain was too small to train it to do anything useful, and it was too weak and decrepit to be let loose to rampage in one of my rivals' territory, even Inuyasha would make short work of killing the thing.

"See? That is exactly why you're no fun Sesshomaru. You're always thinking of things in terms of loses and gains. You're almost as bad as Naraku." Nirakumi commented on my thoughts.

I backhanded her across the face. How dare she compare me to that treacherous snake!

"Don't ever compare me to Naraku again, he is a lying spider. He is another one I will kill." She stared at me in open mouthed shock, her hand clutched to her jaw were I had struck her.

"Just like that? No anger, no vehemence, just a simple statement of fact? Then why haven't you killed him yet? He has wreaked havoc upon the timeline, made countless enemies, yet still he lives. He will destroy everything unless you can lay aside your overpriced ego and do what is necessary!"

Her words had the ring of truth to them, but I did not understand their meaning, what must I do that is necessary? She obviously believed that I would not want to do it if given a choice, yet I could think of nothing that I would not do to kill that bastard, save perhaps ally myself with Inuyasha. I started to smirk at that prospect when my blood ran cold. She could not be serious! What help could that pathetic weakling give that would be of any use to defeat Naraku?

I schooled my thought to stillness; I constantly underestimate Inuyasha, I would not be guilty of the same mistake again. I would watch him closely upon our next encounter to see if Nirakumis words bore any merit. They might, but I doubted it.

I said nothing as Nirakumi got to her feet grumbling and rubbing her jaw. As I turned back to continue walking she gave me a mutinous glare that spoke of retribution ten fold. I would have to watch her closely as well.

As we moved onward, the mellow stench of humans caught in my throat. Fire light glinted through the foliage up ahead, diluting the bright moonlight, and making the leaves around us appear to drip with liquid gold. Long before we got close enough to see the humans I had slowed my step, placing my feet carefully to avoid any sound, Nirakumi too modified her gait to a stealthier approach. The only sound besides the humans chatter was my own heartbeat, beating slower than even a hibernating bears would, as it should be. Nirakumi might as well have been a ghost for all the sound she made as she crept along behind me.

The distinctive sounds of the humans speech patterns drifted through the trees as we moved close enough to distinguish individual scents, I recognized the scent of the monk and the demon hunter, as well as the kitsune kit, that Inuyasha keeps with him. Of Inuyasha himself, there was no evidence, nor was there any sign of his human wench. Good.

"Where's Kagome?" a whining childish voice drifted from the camp. The kits' scent spiked with loneliness

"She's gone back to her own time, she mentioned something about exams." Said a feminine voice in collected tones. The demon huntress' scent was sure but underlined with deep sadness. She had interested me briefly once, when I learned that Naraku had thought to use her as a pawn. Apparently Naraku had slaughtered her entire village then blamed it on Inuyasha, then sent her to kill him. Pity it did not work, but then again, she's only human. Besides, he's mine to kill if I wish. Both of them.

"And of course Inuyasha's gone off to sulk." Said a carefree voice that undoubtedly belonged to the monk. His voice hid nothing beneath its tone, but his scent was wrong somehow, likely due to the curse on his hand. It was a curse only insofar as it would one day kill him, the Kazaana in his palm was a formidable weapon, it allowed him to walk freely in an age were humans are considered light snacks for many demons.

A motley crew if ever there was one, two humans and a child, Inuyashas' most trusted allies. Truly pathetic. Still I cautioned myself not to underestimate them; they had survived so far, after all.

We inched back from the voices and the firelight, having heard what was necessary. We continued along our way, creeping silently around the perimeter of their camp then on toward the well.

I could smell it by now, the musk of the ancient wood of a time tree thick with the feeling of power that emanated from it. Its presence was so great in fact, that as it came into view through the trees, I was shocked to find that it was an open box that rose maybe a foot out of the ground. It was rather anti climactic in fact.

Nirakumi had been telling the truth, though, and that was the important part. She has not lied to me at all as of yet, but I have found that a discipline of constant vigilance serves me well. Thus she would constantly be guilty until proven innocent.

I examined the well thoroughly; it appeared old, but the wood was well seasoned, not decaying, it had vines growing at its base giving it a look of life, and its corners were slightly askew, but there's nothing to be done about human craftsmanship.

"Tell me Nirakumi, how does the well work?"

"You just jump in and you show up in the twentieth century." she said impatiently.

"Do not take me for a fool Nirakumi. I asked how it worked, not how to work it."

"Oh. Well, you're familiar with the legend of Oroborous, correct?" I nodded

"That and other world serpents."

"Good, this well is linked to it. Just as the serpent eats its own tale, so does time consume itself; beginning to end, end to beginning. With the proper key one could go any were in time they wanted, however, we only have one destination in mind this time."

"What is the key?"

"Oroborous' claw."

"Oroborous is a snake, it has no claw."

"Exactly." I glared at her, how could the claw be the key if there was no claw in the first place? Odious woman. She grinned back at me.

"I never said there was no claw, I just agreed he doesn't have one right now." And with that impish statement, she hopped over the side and into the well.

There was nothing for it now but to follow her, so with a resigned sigh I leapt lightly into the bone eaters well.

Had I been paying attention, I might have noticed a shadowy figure running through the clearing just behind me.

And thus concludes my shortest chapter ever. It seems as if the more chapters I do, the shorter they get.

I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing

Any way now to the important questions

Will Sesshomaru succeed in the kidnap of Kegome?

Will Nirakumi ever get a life?

And well I ever stop using Greek and Norse mythology in a Japanese fanfic?

Find out next time in another melodramatic installment of _Golden Eyes._


	5. Rin: the girl who can not speak

Scroll Five:

Rin; the girl who can not speak

For the first time in what seemed like an eternity to the little girl, Rin was happy. She was convinced she had found her fairy tale prince. The fact that her prince was a demon did not concern her. Of course he was a demon; but he was still her prince come to take her away from here horrible life of scavenging for food and being beaten for trying to survive.

It had been so long since her mother told her those stories before she tucked her into her futon; stories of courageous lords and evil demons, that she had forgotten that the prince was supposed to vanquish the demon instead of being the demon.

So she followed her lord Sesshomaru blindly, trusting that the great demon lord would do what was right for her. After all, he had saved her from those wolves.

She was not quite sure what had happened that night; she had been running from the wolves, panicked and exhausted, when she tripped. Things got hazy after that; she remembered snapping jaws, and pain, then nothing. The next thing she knew, her demon prince was standing over her, and not a wolf in sight.

And so, since the prince and the heroine were always supposed to live happily ever after, she had followed him. She only wished that he would stop trying to leave her behind.

"Child! You let me out of here this instance! This is no time to be fooling around!" the indignant squawking was coming from inside the suit of armor, which was currently shaking with Jaken's attempts to get out of the thing. If Rin could remember how to speak, she would have apologized for trapping him in there. Instead she clasped the two headed staff at her side and bowed politely from the waist. She had stolen the staff from him shortly before she had locked him up in the armor.

Rin did not like having to trap him in the samurai suit, but he would have stopped her from following lord Sesshomaru. She did not like staying in this stuffy palace either, and she couldn't understand why her lord would leave her alone here. Jaken was good company and made funny sounds, and he would be even better if he would stop insulting her, but no amount of indignant squawks wrenched from the toad-like being could replace the feeling of safety her demon prince inspired.

At first it had seemed wrong somehow that one so beautiful as her lord should have such a hideous servant, and so she had tried to chase Jaken away by hitting him over the head with a bamboo switch. But when Sesshomaru took the bamboo away from her she realized that Sesshomaru did not care what Jaken looked like, only that Jaken was a good servant. Of course Rin had not yet seen Sesshomaru kick Jaken across the room merely for talking too much, thus her head was filled with notions of a just and fair Sesshomaru.

Even if she were to discover this to be far from the truth, she would think no less of him, for one must always have faith in their prince. She could look into those strange golden eyes, eyes that were emotionless to others, and through some trick of the light or fancy of her childlike imagination, she could see that he would protect her. Just by looking into his eyes she knew he was her prince.

And though the child may only be imagining compassion in the icy depths of Sesshomaru's eyes, she was not wrong; for although he may not admit it to even himself, he would protect her with his life.

She left the two headed staff at the feet of the furiously quivering suit of armor and skipped off, trying to remember the words to a song her mother had taught her. And more importantly, trying to remember how to sing.

She remembered her mother singing, happy tunes as she gathered herbs, and she remembered singing those songs with her mother, she just couldn't remember how. Rin was sure she'd figure it out somehow. But for now she would just have to make do.

Even the last words her mother had spoken to her had seemed musical when she had told her to be silent so long ago. The four uncounted years since her mother died seemed like an eternity to little Rin; she was sure she couldn't be more than a gazillion years old by now, when, in fact she was only seven.

She tried to think of happier things as the memories of the raid crept back, but as with trying not to think of the little brown monkeys while stirring the cauldron to make gold, telling yourself not to think about something doesn't work.

She remembered when the first arrow flew in, taking her father in the throat.

"Mommy, why isn't daddy getting up?" Rin began to feel fear well up from the pits of her stomach, and her head buzzed strangely, making everything seem surreal.

"Daddy! Get up! Da-" Her mothers firm hand clamped over Rins mouth as she picked her up and whisked her inside their little house. Her mother hid her inside the chest they kept the futons in. Just before she closed the lid she kissed Rin on the forehead.

"Rin, be a good girl all right?" there was fear and grief in her mothers eyes, unshed tears warring with determination.

"Whatever you do Rin, stay in here and don't make a sound, okay? Not a word." Rin nodded dumbly. Her mother smoothed her hair and kissed her on the forehead one last time before grabbing her herb satchel and closing the lid of the chest, leaving Rin in the darkness with only the sound of her own breathing and the screams of the dying to keep her company.

Her breathing was hoarse and loud in her ears, she was sure somebody else would be able to hear it. She held her breath, trying to be absolutely silent as her mother had told her, but though she could hold her breath until she grew dizzy, she could not stop breathing, and each time the burning need for oxygen consumed her, her tortured breathing seemed louder and louder. She wanted to cry out in frustration that she could not do as her mother had instructed her, but did not.

Finally the gnawing worm of fear burrowing through her stomach clawed its way into her brain and distracted her from trying to control her breathing.

What was going on out there?

Where was mommy?

Why didn't daddy get up when she called him?

All these questions ran through her mind, dancing sickeningly across her imagination, her sightless eyes straining to see through the thick darkness inside the chest. And each time the questions ran through her head, the possible answers became progressively worse. As she cowered alone, and in the dark, her imaginings became worse and worse; her mother was ripped to bloody shreds by twenty foot monsters, the ground opened up with a great fiery maw and swallowed her daddy whole, while shadowy beasts with red eyes waited for her just out side the chest and would pounce and eat her insides if she so much as sneezed.

Of course, when she thought about sneezing she immediately had to. Her eyes wide with fear, she immediately brought her hands up to her nose and pinched it as hard as she could. She couldn't sneeze; if she made any noise at all terrible things would happen. In her minds eye the shadowy beasts became clearer, bright red eyes crazy with hunger, dank fur hanging in mats all around them, except were viscous spikes protruded, six inch fangs gleaming wetly as they salivated in anticipation of eating her insides, just waiting for her to sneeze. And she was back to sneezing; the itch was gone, she took her hands carefully from her nose, ready to clamp them back on should the itch even think of returning. She could almost smell the fell beasts horrid stench as they breathed on the chest, just waiting for her to make a noise. The smell was acrid, a burning scent that she was sure meant that the creatures breathed fire.

On and on it went, the darkness feeding her imagination like dry scrub in a wildfire, the adrenaline and fear coursing through her frantically pounding heart exhausting her, until finally she became lost in a delirium of shadows and blood.

Sometime after that, the clash of metal and screams of men and animals faded, to be replaced with the moans of the dying and the smell of charred flesh. She reasoned she must have been in that chest for more than a hundred years by now. She waited another hundred years in cramped exhaustion for her mother to return with words of soothing comfort: 'Of course I'm all right Rin, I'll always be here for you.' or 'Your fathers fine Rin, he only tripped.' But no words ever came, nor did her mother. She cried herself silently to sleep.

When she awoke, it was to the grim knell of the ravens call. She cracked the lid of the chest open. Sunlight fell through motes of soot and dust; making the air appear to swirl murkily. The timbers of one wall where charred, and the wooden screen over the doorway was completely gone. Her stomach growled, and she told it silently to be quiet.

She climbed out of the chest, hoping that her mother wouldn't scold her for coming out. She crossed the blackened dirt floor to the doorway, her eyes widened with shock at what she saw.

Bodies, everywhere. A few stunned villagers moved among the wreckage, picking through the rubble or crying out piteously for loved ones, but other than the ravens and a single unblinking cat, nothing moved.

She jumped as the charred framework of the house across the path collapsed, crumbling to dust before her eyes and peppering her with cold ashes. She closed her eyes and tried to rub the soot out of them, but she only made them sting worse. Silent tears tracked runnels through the dirt on her cheeks.

She looked to her side, to the place were she had seen her father fall. She saw a seething mass of black ravens cawing raucously and jostling one another, an arrow shaft protruded up out of the mass, its feathered shaft pointing skyward toward a sun that was much too bright. As she approached, many of the ravens flew off calling out rudely, nearby the cat flicked its tail.

At first she didn't realize what she was looking at, when she did, her mind was scarred forever.

His eyes were gone, nothing left but bloody sockets oozing jelly. Something squished under her feet and she realized she was standing in a pool of blood and intestines, his stomach lay some twenty feet away, dragged there by some scavenging animal, his various other organs stretched out in a crazy path from her fathers body to his stomach. His exposed flesh was pocked with scratches and flies buzzed around his open mouth.

Her own mouth opened in a silent scream of horror, and she stumbled away clumsily, biting the insides of her cheeks to keep from making a noise, she couldn't make a noise, her mother had told her not to. She bit down harder and harder, fighting the urge to scream, she bit down until she tasted blood, and still she wanted to scream.

She turned and fled into the woods, it was probably for the best that she never found her mothers body.

As she forced herself out of the memory, Rin realized she had come to a stop in the middle of a palace hallway. She was trembling with remembered grief and trying furiously not to let the unshed tears in her eyes slip out. After all, she had found her prince; she had no reason to be unhappy.

She wiped her eyes with her kimono sleeve and forced herself to keep moving, her feet trudging along, scuffing the immaculately polished wood of the floor.

She continued in this manner for several long minutes, until she reached the great double doors of the entrance hall and saw a rainbow wisp of light waiting for her. Then, in one of the sudden mercurial shifts of mood children are prone to, she remembered the red headed Nirakumi and a smile split her face from ear to ear. She remembered the flying woman's words from the previous night: 'now Rin, your prince Sesshomaru is going to try to leave you behind when he leaves tomorrow. He thinks it is the best thing for you, but what he doesn't know is that he is going to need your help. So I want you to wait until noon tomorrow then follow this.' Nirakumi demonstrated, she waved her fingers through the air and a rainbow hued wisp of light issued forth from her fingertips. 'this will guide you to Sesshomaru, but only you will be able to see it, so don't tell any body about it, alright?' Rin remembered nodding, and thinking that Nirakumis' last comment was strange; if she couldn't even remember how to talk, how could Rin tell anybody about a wisp of light only she could see?

Nirakumi was even better than Jaken, when it came to amusement value; not only did Nirakumi make funny comments all the time, she could fly!

Rin recalled the exhilarating rush she had felt when Nirakumi had picked her up and flown right to the top of the palace, then sat back and hovered in midair, the view of the stars from the roof had been awe inspiring to the little girl, and as Nirakumi spoke quietly of how she needed to trust Sesshomaru no matter what, Rin had tried to count the them. She fell asleep like that, wondering what it was like to touch one.

And so it was that when she woke in the morning she was puzzled to find herself on a futon in a chamber adjacent to Sesshomaru's room, wondering if it had been a dream.

The ribbon of light was right here in front of her, though, and she was pleased that it had not been a dream, and that she had not just locked Jaken in a samurai suit for nothing.

Thus the intrepid girls' adventure began; with no idea where she would go, what she would do when she got there, and following a wisp of light that only she could see. But that's just how life is, isn't it?

And so the chapter ends with the scintillating questions;

Is Rin insane?

Is this story ever going to end?

Will I be able to keep my PG rating?

Tune in next time for another ridiculously short addition of Golden Eyes!

Authors note: I certainly hope my story doesn't get deleted for that scene with her father. But it had to be done; something that would scare a child baldly enough as to make her forget how to speak has to be pretty bad.

Also, thank you to Anna's Pastime for your support, up until now nobody has seemed interested in my story. I suppose I can attribute it to the sheer number of fics in the Inuyasha category, but still, your reviews mean a lot to me.


	6. a short narrative

Scroll Six:

A short narrative

And so it was that several strands of fate began to intertwine; one of those threads crossed over upon itself in a great looping arc that traversed time, this thread was silver and had a strange gap in it just before it crossed over itself. This gap was very similar to the gap in the brown thread that accompanied it, a thread that shimmered in its newness but was strangely disturbing for the infinitesimal gap in it. There was another strand, a green one; that one might remark upon in its sheer unimportance, this one accompanied the silver strand for a long stretch of the pattern, but this thread did not follow the other two in their strange jump to another time in the pattern. There were other threads that were affected by these two; some cut short, some skewed at strange angles, others twisted around into strange corkscrews that were all but un-interpretable. Still others influenced these two, most notably a brash red thread, and a noxious purple one.

There was nothing particularly special about the silver and brown threads in comparison with the rest of the vast pattern; just two more lives, living, fighting, and struggling. These were but two threads in a vast and incomprehensible web, but were of notice for what accompanied them. Of all the threads in this vast weave; these two were accompanied by a piece of the vast black net that surrounded the entire thing. The black net that looms over us all; stalking us, frightening us, and eventually taking us, yet not normally walking with us. Just a piece of that black web, yet still enough to draw the Fates attention.

"What is Death doing?" one of the three peered closely at the weave.

"It looks like its conscience has gone on a holiday." Another harrumphed loudly, if a cosmic being could be said to harrumph.

"Well, somebody should go get it; Hell is having enough problems as it is without it sending little bits of itself to every corner of the globe." Said the first. Then the third, shrouded in shadows, the wisest of the three, spoke out:

"No," she said quietly, but with an air of command "let Persephone have her time in the world. Look here," she pointed to a piece further on in the weave: "This will turn out for the better I think."

The others gazed at the pattern but could see nothing but chaos

"As you say sister, but let us pray Persephone returns soon, before Hades unravels completely.

And somewhere down upon the vast scope of time and space, Nirakumi sneezed three times. She rubbed at her nose thoughtfully;

"Hmm, someone must be thinking about me."

And still elsewhere, a man who called himself Resh stood in an expensively decorated penthouse, silhouetted in the great window that looked over quite a bit of Tokyo bay.

He smiled softly to himself, looking out over the pristine waters of Tokyo bay; at least, they seemed pristine from here, but in reality, the industrialized harbor was filthy. Still, he enjoyed the illusion all the same, and admired the ships in the harbor. Of particular note were the long boats; small vessels that once accompanied the great wooden tall ships on there voyages across seas and into legend, there were quite a few down there. He supposed it must be one of the tournaments that were still held to celebrate traditional sailing and seamanship. There was even one of the few tall ships left in the world down there; a magnificent replica of one of Cheng I Sao's pirate junks, most probably the vessel the judges would be on.

Resh shook his head and stroked the Abyssinian cat that lay on the chair behind him, remembering a day very much like this one, a day long ago, when he died for the first time.

So concludes this ridiculously small chapter of golden eyes

Is Nirakumi really Persephone?

Who is this Resh?

And why the hell do I persist in writing this story?

We might actually cover this someday, but not in the next overdone chapter of golden eyes.

A/N wow, and I thought chapter four was short. This take the cake, but to make up for it I am posting two chapters at once, so read on to see what Sesshomaru does in the future.


	7. tensaiga left behind: a gang war

Scroll Seven:

Tensaiga left behind: a gang war in Tokyo

Sesshomaru sat in the dark parlor, temper smoldering. His face, as always, was as impassive as a church sculpture. An acute observer, however, might tell that his eyes were fierce and feral. If said observer was in any way intelligent, he would also be able to tell that Sesshomaru was very dangerous.

In the twenty first century, however, there were no acute observers, and very few intelligent ones. Everyone looks at the man sitting alone in the corner, serene and impassive as a kabuki dancer, but do not see him. They see what they wish to see, but only in the perspective of their own lives. The girl in the pink tank top sees a man too beautiful to be real, whom she would dearly like to speak too, but is too shy too approach. The young man in the leather jacket with his arm around a beautiful girlfriend sees a serious threat to his sustained status as boyfriend to the beautiful girl next to him. The business man, who routinely stops in for some coffee and rarely notices anything, looks up just long enough to see the crisp new suit the man is wearing and hope that he does not have yet another competitor to his law firm.

They did not care who the man was or why he was there, they cared only for how that man could affect their lives. For as far as they were concerned, the man's only existence was in how he might effect their lives. Such is the twenty first century.

Sesshomaru looked behind himself once again to make sure there was nothing latched onto his hair; it just felt so constricted in a braid, a braid Nirakumi had assured him was necessary to help him blend in to this time period. She had wanted him to cut it, but he adamantly refused. Damn Nirakumi, and damn her assurances!

They had arrived in this time through the well, near a proper looking dwelling with a temple; the house had smelled very strongly of Inuyasha's human, but she had not been there. Sesshomaru felt he should have stayed near the dwelling, laying in wait so he could capture the girl when she came. But Nirakumi had dragged him off toward the great metal towers before he could really get his bearing.

She stuck around just long enough to stuff him into this confining black garment, and make him tie his hair back like some animal, then she had disappeared muttering something about 'episode three' whatever that meant, and told him to wait for her in a nearby structure. Insufferable!

Sesshomaru glanced around the room in annoyance; it was filled with humans drinking a pungent smelling black substance. He suspected the drink was a derivative of the black beans he had sometimes encountered in the Peruvian mountains, but knowing what it was gave him little comfort, he was still not about to drink the stuff.

He was becoming impatient waiting for Nirakumi; if she did not arrive soon he would leave and learn about this time on his own. He knew it would be a foolish thing to do, he did not know anything of the strange world of the future, nothing of the threats this time might pose him, yet still he found himself walking out the door.

As he exited, another man jostled him on his way in. This man wore very similar garments to the ones he himself now wore, but then everyone above a certain age seemed to. This man wore sunglasses and had his hair slicked back. On his face was a sneer of contempt. An unsavory punk, though Sesshomaru would not know it.

Sesshomaru was not about to allow this affront to his person pass; he stopped and glared at the man with an icy contempt that came from ten thousand years of crushing men like these under his heel. Before he could threaten the insolent creature, however, the man snarled at him.

"Watch were your going, you prissy fairy!" now Sesshomaru, who was not familiar with the cultural slang of the era, really didn't understand why these words were supposed be insulting, but he didn't need to, all he needed to know was that they were insulting.

He didn't give a second thought to killing the man. In a lightning quick strike, he sliced the man's arm off and shoved the appendage down its owner's throat. It was not clean, nor efficient, but he felt it was what the man deserved.

It was not just about the insult either, something smelled wrong about the man, or had smelled wrong before he killed him. The man not only was a pathetic coward even for a human being, he was the kind of coward that would sell his own mother to curry the favor of whoever had the most power. It was a scent that reminded him of Naraku. He kicked the man in the ribs as he lay suffocating on his own arm.

When Sesshomaru looked up it was to the shocked faces of a packed Tokyo street. Everyone was stock still, terrified of this man that had committed such an atrocity in broad day light. Sesshomaru couldn't resist the urge to startle them even more.

"Boo." He said. It wasn't even particularly scary, just 'Boo' in Sesshomaru's cold monotone voice. He almost smiled when they scattered like flies in all directions, but did not. He used the mass panic to make his exit up to a nearby rooftop.

Sesshomaru learned something there on that street; apparently it was not common for someone to avenge their honor by feeding someone their own arm; interesting.

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Tarumoto sat behind his desk, hands folded, listening to his scouts report. Upon hearing the entire report, he sighed heavily.

"Well, I can't say I'll miss Itsu too much, but this news is disturbing, nobody messes with the Yakuza, not even that crazy American Resh. Then here come some white haired assassin out of the blue and feeds poor Itsu his own arm." He tapped his fingers on his desk for a moment, thinking.

"Is this man insane? Or is Resh making his move?" he pondered this for a second, not expecting a reply from the scout, the man new better than to say anything unless addressed directly.

He seemed to reach a decision; he dismissed the scout, and waited as the man bowed himself out of the room.

Tarumoto gazed pensively out his window, as if by looking hard enough he could discern this white haired assassin in the seething mass of people.

All he found, however, was an impressive view of the Tokyo tower. He did not like this turn of events at all, if Resh was sending assassins, he was planning something; and if Resh was planning something, it was going to be big. Rumors abounded about this new crime lord from America, but not much in the way of fact.

Rumor had it, that Resh had been in Japan before, but nobody could give him an exact date as to when that might have been. Tarumoto had been in the Yakuza for quite a bit of his long life, and had never heard of this American before Resh's local enforcers Donya Alexander and Don Raphael moved into town and presented him with the gift of Tarumoto's bodyguards head along with the message that their boss was coming to town to protect his business investments.

Since then the yakuza had been gradually loosing territory, yakuza strongholds had been bombed to the ground by an insane pyromaniac that called herself Damian, entire collection groups had been slaughtered by a blood drinking monster that wielded a sword as if born with it in her hands, snipers waited on roof tops wherever he needed to go, but worst of all was Alexander and Raphael; those two had slaughtered there way to his office door once, to present him with their message, and made sure he knew they could do it again. He had searched the world for people good enough to fight Resh and his Mafia, but it seemed Resh already had them all, and curiously enough they seemed to be mostly women.

But this was the last straw; an assassination in broad daylight was an outright declaration of war. He wasn't sure if he wanted to let loose his secret weapons on Tokyo just yet, he wasn't prepared to cover for the wonton killing that would ensue, but perhaps if he chose his orders very carefully…

He turned back to his desk and leaned forward to press a button on his on his keypad.

"Kanami? Get an execution squad together, I've got a job for you." The only response over the line was a low chuckle.

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Resh paced across the room, the Abyssinian was absent from its usual perch.

"It is today isn't it?" he muttered to himself. He had been waiting for this day for quite a while with something close to apprehension. He was unsure of how to approach the coming situation. He had no desire to change anything, but he did not want to leave it up to chance either. He finally made up his mind; hoping he would not regret his decision, he picked up his phone and dialed Alexander's number. It rang several times before someone picked up. The voice was threatening and gruff, but distinctly feminine.

"Yah?" the voice replied. Resh tried his best to sound jovial, but he had never quite gotten the hang of voice inflection, so instead his voice sounded creepily hollow.

"Ah, Raphael, your there too? Excellent, could I speak to Alexander?" there was the sound of the phone switching hands before a second female voice came on.

"Boss?"

"Good Alexander, I have a job for you and Raphael, the Yakuza is becoming more active down in the dock quarter, I want you to go down there personally and observe their movements. You are only to reveal yourselves should they execute someone, in which case you will eliminate all yakuza thugs in the area and bring me the body of whoever they kill."

"Got it boss, any place in particular you want us to concentrate on?"

"Yes, an abandoned building with an open courtyard inside."

"Got it; you want me to take Damian?"

"No, no loud explosions, the police are already crawling all over the place looking for some psychopath who ripped a guys arm off." It felt strange in his ears describing it like that, when he knew damn well what had really happened. He did not have long to reflect on this before Alexander's voice came once again over the phone.

"If that's all, boss, I can get to work right away."

"One last thing, if you see my cat, just leave it be." If she thought this order was at all strange, Alexander did not voice her opinion, and with one last 'understood' she hung up on the other end.

He hoped Alexander took her body guard with her, because if Kanami was there, as he knew she would be, they were going to need all the supernatural help they could get. He wasn't even sure if vampire could stand up to Tarumoto's newest abominations. He knew that on some level he was responsible for their development; Tarumoto was developing them to combat him. But Resh was only taking back what was rightfully his. Of one thing he was certain, he could not go himself, he would like to, but if he went everything would fall apart.

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The first thing Sesshomaru did after leaving the street in chaos was to dawn his own clothes once more, leaving the ripped and shredded remains of his suit with the briefcase Nirakumi had given him to keep his clothes in. he also wiped the cosmetics off of his face, revealing his demon clan markings once more. He had not understood in the first place why she had insisted he try to blend in, he was here to set a trap, not go sights seeing.

It was good to feel like himself once more, he had felt trapped in the confining clothing of this age. But now, standing on a roof top with the wind blowing through his unbraided hair, he felt much more like the demon lord he should be.

He would have felt slightly better if he had Tensaiga, and was unsure why. 'What is the hold that sword has over me?' he asked himself. But it was a moot point, Nirakumi had made him leave it by the well

That was exactly the problem. He had no idea how too get back to the human priestess's dwelling. He was drowning in the miasma of scents that smothered the human city, and could not even begin to search for the scent he would need to guide him back there. All the streets looked the same from up here, as well, despite his photographic memory. The only way he would have any idea how to get back was if he descended to ground level again. He did not intend to descend back into that pit of putrescent human stench however, so he made a third option for himself; choose a direction, and start moving.

He took off, moving in leaps and bounds across the roof tops, his silver hair billowing out behind him in a glorious streak of silver, and the wind moving past his face erasing even the memory of the smell of the city. He nearly flew across the rooftops.

He moved instinctively toward the dock quarter. He did not know why he chose that direction in particular, it just felt like the direction he should be going. It was as if he was being pulled there, there was a charged feeling in the air, as if something momentous was about to happen.

He rushed across the city rooftops, enjoying the rush of clean air. Up here at least, he was away from most of the smells of the city.

Truth be told, from this vantage point it did not seem nearly so overwhelming; if he closed his eyes he could imagine he was instead in Asia, leaping across the mountains of Tibet, and the distant sounds from below could be the great dragon horns the priests used. He wondered if the great temples in the mountains still existed, it would be nice, the temples were grand and beautiful creations, despite being made by humans. He supposed in its own right, the same could be said of this city, if you took away all the humans, the noise and the smell.

But then he had a sudden epiphany; if you took away all the hums the noise and the smell, this grand city would be gutted; it would no longer serve a purpose. It would be dead to an extant the not even the Tensaiga could bring it back.

Here in this place called Tokyo, humans had achieved greatness beyond imaging, and though individually the human life was just as worthless, the mass of humans living and working together had achieved a singular purpose; a civilization that could challenge a demons power.

Humans were still, and probably would forever be, the most disgustingly fragile species on the planet. But with them united in such a manner…

For the first time since his arrival, Sesshomaru began to ponder the absence of demons in this new world. At first he had assumed that he just could not sense them because of the cities veritable cloud of sound and scent, but now he realized that not even his magical senses picked up anything other than the occasional buzz of a psychically aware human. Demons were supposed to live forever, and Japan had been a veritable hive of demons and other supernatural creatures, yet he could find nothing but his own demonic aura.

Perhaps other demons merely found the city as distasteful as he did, but he could not help the feeling of apprehension that slowly wormed its way into his mind. Perhaps there were no others left, or the few that remained hid.

When he thought about it, though, he knew somehow there were others here in this time, that they were few and far between. It was possible they had spread out into the rest of the world; in his travels he had noticed a sad lack of powerful demons in the rest of the world. It was possible that the demons of Japan had moved out and acquired larger territories elsewhere, after all, he himself was doing that as he traveled the world in his own time, roughly six hundred years ago, he had several estates in Asia and Europe, and even one in Siberia.

Another thought occurred to him as he thought about his estates; where was he in this time? His life expectancy was as good as infinite, so unless by some bizarre circumstance he had died somewhere along the line, he, his future self, should be out there somewhere.

Now that was something to think about. He wondered what he had been up to these past six hundred years, perhaps he was ruling an entire country by now, instead of a region. He wondered how in this day and age he would go about finding out. Perhaps he didn't need to, if he met himself in the future, the future him would remember being him when he went to the future, and so would remember were to meet himself in the future. Of course that was relying on the fact that Sesshomaru himself had to be were the future him remembered being, or the meeting might never take place, and that was assuming it took place in the first place, which was a rather rash assumption on his part.

He shook his head trying to clear the headache he had brought on by thinking about by time paradox, he could meet himself later, first thing first, he had to find that damn girl.

And there you have the conclusion to the latest chapter

Who are these massively destructive divas Alexander and Raphael?

Who is Kanami?

And why is Sesshomaru waxing philosophical? (it must be something he ate)

Tune in next time for the next confusing chapter of golden eyes.

AN: This is referring to the fact that in early history, after china was invaded by aggressors, the native Chinese men were required to wear their hair back in braids. This was a symbol of domination, meant to represent an animals tail, but over time china absorbed its conquerors; nobody really remembered who the invaders were any more. Chinese men still wore their hair back in the Queues, however, because it had become a symbol of honor. However, Sesshomaru is probably from a time before the Queue became a symbol of honor, and if he had ever been to China he would associate the braid with an animal's tail.


	8. kanami: the demon who is not

Scroll Eight

Kanami, the demon who is not

Sesshomaru continued his graceful flight over the rooftops, searching for some indication as to where his quarry was as he leapt with only the lightest touches of his feet coming into contact with the rooftops. He had traversed the entire city in this manner; leaping across the great chasms between the structures with the ease and grace of a great cat, so that he seemed to be some sort of ethereal white bird flying high above the city.

He began to wonder if there was any end to the city, until he came to a place were the great glass towers ended, descending gradually onto lesser buildings. These structures were still great to his eyes, but nonetheless, they were smaller than the towering spires at the center of the city.

His gradual descent brought into view the water of the bay, great ships rested upon waters that sparkled in the sunlight, but were polluted with the filth of humans. Had he been a more elemental minded creature this sight would have saddened him, but as it was it merely disgusted him.

He realized that the price of greatness was high, and humans had had to pay doubly much to attain it, for why else would a sentient species-or even a semi sentient species such as humans were, pollute their water?

These questions were pushed from his mind when he felt a tingle on the edge of his periphery senses; a sharp spiky smell of wrongness. This was the only warning he had before something slammed into him, knocking him from his flight and smashing him through the skylight of the building below him.

The shattering glass seemed to fall slowly as he was smashed forcibly to the ground. All around him the air seemed to blossom with the sharp rapport of human weapons, fire exploding from the barrels, pushing projectiles through the air with their force.

He leapt to the air just before the strange bullets converged on the spot he had been. A bright beam of energy unfolded from his claws as he sought to defend himself from the twenty or so foolish humans who thought to injure him.

Their attempts would have been laughable if not for the speed at which the bullets were firing. His whip curled through the air in a deadly flower of his own, silencing the threatening weapons by killing the users, but not before a few inevitably found their mark in his flesh. The wounds were not serious he knew, but they stung enough for a Samiyosho.

He touched the ground as the glass finished falling, shards glinting maliciously in the light as they shattered upon the floor. Already the ground was flooding with so much blood that he thought perhaps it might stain his shoes.

He was silently congratulating himself on a job well done when the crunching sound of the glass behind him gave him the warning that the wrongness was approaching again. He turned around confidently, sure that he could dispatch the approaching entity with ease; it had some power, but not nearly enough to challenge him.

What he beheld was almost laughable in its pretentious demeanor; a slight woman, smaller even than Nirakumi, no more than a girl really, stood in the pooling blood, wearing a light blue dress. She was holding her back in a rigid posture that would suggest importance, but with her chin tilted downward and to the side so that she was looking up at him through her ragged dark hair with a grin of insanity upon her face.

And then the exact same woman stepped out of the shadows to his left, and then another. They came out of the shrouded shadows of the ruined courtyard, stepping one by one into the shaft of light pouring down from the ruined sky light. As each of them approached their power grew exponentially until he was surrounded by seven identically tilted crazed grins. He began to worry slightly; their power together was much greater than he had anticipated.

"Tarumoto sends his greetings, assassin." They all spoke in unison.

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes, regarding them with an inscrutable expression; he did not give a damn as to who this Tarumoto was or whether he thought that Sesshomaru was an assassin, but this was the first creature he had encountered that resembled a demon, and he wanted a few questions answered.

"What are you, creature?" he said

"I am Kanami." They said, again speaking in unison.

"A single entity?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Immortality and power are hard to come by together." Their voices meshed to form strange sibilant tones.

"I see. You could not have too much power or your body would burn out." So she was not a true demon, but something unnatural. She may have been a lesser spirit at some point, but no longer, she had twisted herself into something else.

"Yes, growing new ones to hold new powers can be very convenient." They replied flippantly. Sesshomaru brushed aside this comment, focusing on the information that he wanted

"Were are the Youkai of this time?" he asked, deciding that he could risk letting slip that bit information about his time travel, as Kanami would be too dead to tell anyone after he left here. Kanami, however merely looked confused, all of them blinking in baffled unison.

"Youkai?"

Sesshomaru's face took on a speculative look. A demon who did not know what she was? It was an interesting prospect.

But he was not allowed to explore the subject further, as Kanami had finally grown tired of being confused by her target. She wanted to see blood

Suddenly the room seemed to shift, as if the walls were melting. Sesshomaru needed no further provocation to attack; he lashed out in a great arc with his energy lash, slicing the one in front of him neatly lengthwise; the corpse slowly peeled apart, the two halves falling to the ground in opposite directions. As the whip cracked back on the rebound he felt the one directly behind him fall. Around him the rest of them were already moving, but each of them seemed to stagger as the one behind him fell.

Though Sesshomaru would not realize it till much later, his course of action had been the best one he could have taken; because they were identical, seven bodies shared one mind as network. And like all networks, there is always a central hub, the head of which was now rolling on the ground some ten feet away from its body. This afforded him much, as even though Sesshomaru is quite probably one of the most powerful demon lords in history, his strength would have been no match for the coordinated attacks of Kanami, each of whose bodies possessed a different talent.

The world seemed to right itself and Sesshomaru experienced no more mind altering effects after the fall of the first one, but he did not notice this pleasant detail; he had more pressing things to worry about.

Stray objects around the courtyard began to quiver with a life not of their own, rocks, garbage, concrete slabs, and most noticeably the dead bodies of the human gunmen danced through the air, forming a whirling and macabre dance of the dead. The Kanami to his left began closing in, apparently attempting to fight him hand to hand, and the one to his right made a motion with her hands, and he recognized the beginnings of a magical attack.

Knowing that the best way to win a fight was to silence the magic user, he ignored the one closing in and lashed out at the one who was performing the spell, trying to slice her body in a diagonal fashion, but she put a shield up just barely in time, deflecting the blow onto the one next to her, who shrieked as the front of her chest and most of her abdomen slid to the ground, revealing her still beating heart. The objects and bodies floating in the air fell to the ground along with her intestines, and her heart stilled.

The chi attacker still lived though, and this was his biggest problem, he had lost his chance to take the offensive; the Kanami to the left had come in to close to allow him to use the energy whip to any effect, and the one to his right was still hanging back so he couldn't get at her; she was preparing to use her spells.

The two in front of him were not his only concern however, as one of the two remaining behind him began to move as well. The one behind him to his left began to move so fast that she was a blur even to his demon eyesight. The only thing he could do was twist slightly so that the dagger meant for his throat met his shoulder instead, then she was past him and moving around the room so fast that he lost track of her as the Kanami in front of him began raining kicks and punches at him.

He blocked or dodged them easily; backing up lightly and channeling her attacks past him so that she was often overbalanced. Despite this however, she corrected her balance so quickly that he had no chance to take advantage of these openings. Sesshomaru focused on her, hoping to take care of her quickly so that he could get the Kanami with the chi powers before she got him.

With her right leg the Kanami before him aimed a whirling back kick at his head, which was an impressive move for someone of her stature. He blocked with his hand, grasping her ankle and trying to wrench her off balance. She twirled in the air, and her other leg swung over his head, ruffling his hair, and down around behind him, to land a light blow on his calf. Her foot twisted out of his grip, and she did a small cartwheel to regain her footing. She came up just in time to block his claws with her left hand, which were snaking in to tear out her throat. With her other hand she punched at his torso. He used his speed to step to one side, using her momentum against her and helping her along past him. As he reached in to rip her spine out, she twisted around in mid stride, twirling into his attack so that her back was right up against him, inside the reach of his arm. She drove her elbow into his stomach, only to meet thin air as he side stepped her again.

They continued in this fashion for a bit longer, moving about the courtyard in a flurry of movement, while the chi user continued to charge power for her attack, and the third one blurred around the room, looking for an opening to cut him again. Curiously the fourth one made no move to attack him. It watched him with oddly feral eyes; not just insane, but wild, like a rabid dog.

This struck him as so odd that he was distracted for a moment, and in that moment of distraction, the one with the daggers saw her opening.

In a lightning quick blur she was behind him, stabbing with the dagger several times in the span of two seconds. He turned furiously and backhanded her across the courtyard; she flew back, tumbling across the floor and into the one with the feral eyes, were they both lay stunned and did not get up again.

The one fighting him hand to hand used this opportunity to land a crushing blow on his left collar bone, which snapped in two places. At the same time Sesshomaru used her over extension and force from the punch to spin himself back around to find her unguarded heart with his claws.

She gasped in shock as he ripped her rib cage open, spraying blood across the courtyard and flinging her punctured heart to rest somewhere in the shadows. She crumpled slowly to the ground, a few drops of red clinging to her deathly pale face even as her life force flowed into a dark puddle around her. She died kneeling in her own blood, hands splayed out before her as if in a gesture of supplication.

Then he turned to the last one standing, the chi user. Time seemed to slow. Even as he was upon her, ripping her throat out, she released her final spell of devastation.

Blue light exploded outward in lancing beams of energy, the pinpoint needles of chi power ripping through his flesh.

Sesshomaru's world dissolved into blinding agony, and then nothing, not even the beating of his own heart.

The end

Mwahahahahahahaha, mwahahahah! Mwahah- hakhak- choke- wheeze

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just joking

What will become of our not so heroic hero now?

Who will come to his aid?

Will it be Rin, the little girl with the short attention span?

Or will it be the creepy mafia broad, Donya Alexander?

And will Nirakumi ever come back from a galaxy far, far away?

One can only hope not.

AN: a character reference for Kanami, she looks like the actress who plays 'Boomer' in the new Battlestar Galactica. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to get into a fight with her, much less seven of her.

as you can see, since chapter five I have chosen to change the narrative style, and the story is flowing much more smoothly now, though still not as quick as I'd like. I like this style much better, so I will not be switching back, you will not have to worry about any further confusing switches of that variety.

Additionally I am now resigned to the fact that this story has grown exponentially larger in content than my original idea. Did you know that at first this was going to be a three chapter story? At this rate I'll be lucky to get away with under twenty, and that's if I don't add any further plot twists than I already have planned. At the rate I write new chapters I won't be done for a long time.

Oh well, this story is one of the fist I ever started, and it's still going, so I feel a bit proud that I've stuck with it for so long.

Any way I have several reasons that the updates take so long:

1. I rarely have time to write, and when I do I often try to concentrate on my actual book.

2. I have limited access to the internet.

3. I'm a lazy bum

I know it's obscene, but there you have it, my life in a nutshell.

Thank you to Racheal for you kind review, I know that you can just come over and tell me what you think of my stories, but it's much more fun to get a review.

To Anna's pastime; I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, the yakuza did go after him, and the scene that ensued was my first real attempt at I fight scene, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but on the downside, I felt that I finally had to update the rating to M because the blood was starting to spill over the top.

To anyone else who was kind enough to review: here's to you kids, another chapter.


	9. the unnamed place

Scroll Nine

The un-named place

Sesshomaru was dead.

Sesshomaru was also royally pissed.

One might normally consider these two states of being to be mutually exclusive, however this was Sesshomaru, and, as in many things, one could not expect him to be normal.

"I will not stand for this!" he roared, or tried to, but nobody paid him any mind; not the two unconscious Kanamis', not the cat watching him in the corner, nor the tattered remains of his body at his feet.

It was absolutely unfair; he was Sesshomaru! Somebody should be listening to him, even in death. Were was Jaken? Or Rin? And were was that insufferable Nirakumi, wasn't she supposed to be the Goddess of death? Why wasn't any body helping him!

Sesshomaru stopped his pacing, trying to get a grip on himself, and wondering why he felt so unhinged; surely death was not a reason to lose all decorum. He thought about his situation carefully, going through it in his mind and looking for a reasonable course of action.

The way he saw it, he had two options: stay dead and move on, or not stay dead. His personal preference being the latter, he began wondering how exactly one went about coming back to life. Surely it couldn't be all that difficult, even without Tensaiga; Nirakumi could do it after all.

He fixed the bloody remains of his body with a piercing stare, willing it to move. He haphazardly wondered how he was going to get all that blood out of his hair when finally succeeded in his goal, he didn't particularly want to be a red head.

But stare as he may, his body just lay there while the blood slowly cooled and clotted. It's face was untouched, and almost seemed to be sleeping, if not for the tattered rents in its chest.

His once pristine white clothing was shredded and stained, and his armor shattered to fragments that lay scattered about the charnel house. His silver hair lay spread in the blood, no longer the swaying mass of moonlight light it had once been, but tangled and matted in the lake of red. The bodies altogether counted twenty five, twenty six counting his own, which rested in state in the center of the carnage.

Desperately, he dropped to his knees, heedless of the blood, indeed, not even feeling it in his spirit state. He tried to put his hands on the body, to attempt to shake himself awake from death, but his hands passed right through. He stared in shock at his arms, now elbow deep inside his own chest; he might not have been quite so shocked under other circumstances, for the gashes in his body sometimes went clear through to the ground beneath, but the fact that he could not feel the flesh at all set him back. It was not right, if the universe had any decency at all, he should at least be able to feel his own blood.

But the universe was not a decent place, and he felt a fool for expecting it to be.

He would obviously not be able to accomplish the task unaided; he would need help if he was to be resurrected. It should not prove too difficult, all he had to do was find a human with spiritual powers; Mikos could see the souls of the dead, couldn't they?

So he would find a miko, and trick her into helping him find Tensaiga, then after he was alive again… well he would destroy that bridge when he crossed it.

First things first, find a miko. He stood and brushed his knees off out of habit, though there was nothing there to dislodge, and surveyed his surroundings, searching for an egress. He quickly located it, his sharp eyes picking it out in the gloom, and went to it. Upon reaching he found that once again his physicality had become mutable as evidenced by his hand passing right through the doorknob.

Unfortunately, his hand would go no further than the doorknob, no matter how he tried, he could not force his way through the closed door. On the one hand it was nice to know that he could actually touch something, but on the other, this was very bad news; he had been sealed to the place of his death.

He glanced calmly around the room, not in the least deterred. A small question was tugging at the back of his mind though, and before he could ascertain his next course of action, it floated to the surface; _Where were those small creatures? _They were always there, whenever he resurrected something, they were hovering over the body, yet they had not come to force him to the afterlife. Just as well, it would save him the trouble of destroying them, though just how he would go about doing such a thing he had not quite figured out. Perhaps it was because Nirakumi was otherwise occupied. Or maybe it was as Nirakumi had said, that his clan was different, and thus moved on to the afterlife in a different manner.

Whatever the case, they had not come, and he could not help but be a little grateful.

Putting the creatures aside for a moment, he glanced up at the skylight he had fallen through when he had been knocked out of the sky by Kanami. Not expecting any different results than the door, he jumped up and attempted to fly out. He was not surprised or disappointed when this failed.

"You can't get out without help." A voice behind him said. He turned, expecting to see one of the two remaining Kanami shells. But he saw nothing, just the two unconscious forms, an Abyssinian cat, and a mass of dead humans.

Thinking that he was just vocalizing his own thoughts without realizing it, he turned back to his examination of the room, wishing that the two Kanami's had not survived the fight. His one consolation being that her mind must have been reduced to a sub sentient state due to the loss of so many of her shells. From the looks of it, one of them had already been that way. It was just galling that even a part of his opponent had survived while he was reduced to the dilemma of attempting to return from the dead in what might as well be a locked room.

"Are you even going to acknowledge me, or are you too busy brooding?" the voice said again, this time most definitely not voicing his own thoughts. He turned once again, to be greeted by gold amber eyes much like his own. The cat blinked at him, yawned luxuriously, and sauntered across the blood spattered room as if it were a bed of radishes.

Stepping gingerly around the holes in his chest, the cat circled a few times before sitting unceremoniously on Sesshomaru's tattered body.

"What are you doing?" Sesshomaru asked icily.

"I'm sitting." The cat replied.

"On _my_ body." Sesshomaru growled. "Have you no respect for the dead?"

"No, but then, you don't either." The cat said flippantly as it began to groom its paw.

"I have respect for the dead, I just don't have any respect for the living." He stated, surprising himself with the truth of it.

"Then why is it that you want to return to the living?" the cat asked innocuously. "It seems to me that you would respect yourself more this way than if you returned to your body."

"That's not the point. I still have to-" he stopped for a moment. "How did you know what I'm planning?" he asked sharply.

"If you really expect me to divulge that information, you really don't know that much about cats." It said with a smug flick of its tail.

"Considering that I was previously unaware that the common cat could even communicate on a sentient level, I suspect you are correct." Sesshomaru said, attempting valiantly not to lose patience with the infuriating feline.

"Ah, but if we admitted that, we would be expected to work for a living." The cat half closed its eyes, apparently satisfied with its superiority.

Sesshomaru turned away from the cat; at the moment, there was nothing he could do about the small creature. Perhaps when he returned to life, he would find the time to teach it some manners, but he doubted it, it was hardly worth his time.

He moved across the room to were the two remaining Kanamis' rested, thinking perhaps that if he possessed one of them, he would be able to leave the room. The two lay sprawled across each other, as they had fallen when he had thrown the one across the room.

Being newly dead though, he was unsure as to how exactly one went about possessing anything. He had read many accounts by followers of both Shinto and Buddhism upon the subjects of exorcisms and the behavior of the dead, but that gave him no knowledge of how the ghost arrived in that position in the first place.

He resolved to have a scroll on the subject commissioned as soon as he went back to his own place in time. He would even be gracious enough to resurrect the lucky author a few days after he killed him, so as to make it easier for the fellow.

Having no better place to start, he put his claw tipped hand to the forehead of one of the two bodies of the small woman. He felt nothing, and as he moved his hand just a centimeter lower, his hand passed right through her skull without effect. He withdrew his hand and focused on her attempting to discern a means of control. As he focused on a spot between her eyebrows, he noticed a faint purple sheen. When he drew back his head and blinked his eyes in surprise he noticed that there were several different spots of color lined up along the core of her body, ranging from red at the base of her spine to white at the crown of her head.

He looked over at the cat to confirm the growing suspicion in his mind, and sure enough, seven color points were visible on it too. Though with the cat, the white and purple points were considerably brighter than on Kanami.

It seemed to know what he was seeing and yawned casually.

"I can tell you what you need to know, for a price." It told him. Sesshomaru thought for a moment, wondering if the cat was even worth his attention, before finally deciding that any information at this point was good information.

"And what would this price be?" he asked it.

"Your soul." The cat said.

"I don't have a soul." Sesshomaru responded with a slight noise in the back of his throat that could, if liberally interpreted, be construed as a derisive laugh.

"Then what have you got to lose?" the cat asked him.

"Fair enough, but the information must at least be useful to even make this conversation worth my while." He said disdainfully. The cat stood up, and with a twitch of its fur, walked to the Kanami that Sesshomaru had been concentrating on. It sat down near the top of her head.

"The crown charka, when not properly warded, is the weakest spot to an astral attack." It informed him.

Sesshomaru glanced at the cat, and then regarded Kanami critically for a moment.

"Hn." Was the only indication he gave that he had even heard the cat.

In truth, the information was invaluable. Sesshomaru was extremely powerful, even in death, and now that he had a point of attack it took but a flex of his power and he had broken through the white charka at the top of her head.

Sesshomaru would have smiled triumphantly, had he not otherwise been occupied by the sensation of being ripped in half.

And so concludes another vastly late chapter of golden eyes, and are left with the following questions;

Will I ever create a likeable original character?

Is Sesshomaru now a woman, or two? WTF?

Did Nirakumi get lost on the way to the bathroom?

It wouldn't surprise me.

Huzza for my newest chapter and a double huzzah for anyone who remembers me. Yes that's right, my latest chapter, it's only been what, half a year? In my defense, I've been very busy writing in my story and several other fanfics at the same time.

If any of you fans of Sesshomaru are interested, he will be showing up in my next update for 'Kagome; a twisted fairytale' when ever that happens (it might be a while, but he will be there.)

Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, I'd write individual responses, but I don't have online access right no, so I can't see your reviews and write tailored responses. If you all review this one, I'll print them out and write the responses before I even write another chapter (or not, if you'd rather have another chapter sooner.)

See you all next time.


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